Adventures in Batsitting
by batman-defeats-all
Summary: The Titans take on their greatest challenge yet; babysitting Robin's younger siblings. Slight AU, no OCs. RobStar. T because I am paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

**... I don't even know exactly where this came from.**

**I love it too much to really care.  
**

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.  
**

Even though the Titans all thought that Robin had left Gotham City with no intentions of ever returning, he actually did visit occasionally. When his team thought he was off on hero business, he was actually at Wayne Manor on _family_ business.

Mostly because, despite the fact he was still upset at the man, he was not cruel enough to leave Bruce alone with his younger siblings.

If he left Gotham as Robin, never to return and just be Dick Grayson, he was sure his family would not be able to stay together. Bruce tried his best, but those kids were just too rambunctious. Which was why Dick had to visit the manor as often as he could.

Even Bruce, with all his stubbornness, admitted that no one but Dick could get the 13-year-old Jason to leave his room for anything more than food. Or get the 11-year-old Cassandra to have an even short conversation. Or help the 9-year-old Tim with his puzzles that he enjoyed so much.

No one was in denial that Dick was the only person the 4-year-old Damian would let hug him. Ever.

Dick was willing to help with his younger siblings. He really was.

Some things, though, was just a bit too much to ask.

"No."

On the other side of the phone, Bruce sighed.

"Dick, Alfred is too busy to take care of them, and I'm busy with unexpected League business. I need you to do this."

"Why can't you just take them with you?"

"... I don't think Jason in the Watchtower is a very good idea."

Robin stopped for a moment, imagining his teen brother in an immensely high-tech, confined area... in space.

"...Touché. Okay, okay, I'll do it."

Bruce sighed in relief.

"Thank you, Dick. I know they want to spend more time with you anyway."

Robin started playing with a birdarang as he continued talking.

"Yeah, yeah. When will you be over?"

"... This afternoon."

Robin turned towards the clock to see what time it was.

"... Bruce, it's 1:00!"

"... We'll be there in ten minutes."

A fierce scowl was soon present on Robin's face.

"They know to call me Robin around my teammates?"

"Yes."

"They'll be wearing mirrored sunglasses?"

"Of course."

"Okay, see you in a few minutes."

Putting down the phone, the young hero leaned against the wall, groaning loudly in annoyance. A second later, he was dashing out the door of his room as the realization that he had to warn his teammates about the coming coming rascals hit him.

When he burst into the tower's main room, Cyborg and Beast Boy looked up from their video game, looking the panting leader oddly. Raven and Starfire were distracted from their meditation by the teen, and turned to him questioningly. As he caught his breath, the alien stood up and walked toward him.

"Friend Robin, what is the rush?"

"I need... to warn you guys..."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow at him.

"Of what?"

"... My younger siblings that we are sort of going to babysit..."

Beast Boy gaped at him.

"Dude, you have little siblings?"

"...Yeah... Four..."

As the young teen stared at Robin, Raven walked over to him.

"How young are they?"

Robin thought for a moment how to answer. Deciding that it was safe to say their first names, he spoke.

"Jason is 13, Cass is 11, Tim is 9, and Damian is 4."

Beast Boy suddenly brightened.

"Hey, that shouldn't be too hard! The oldest isn't much younger than us, so he might be able to help with the smaller ones."

Robin shook his head.

"No, no he won't. Jason will easily be the hardest to deal with."

"... How hard?"

"He's the main reason I thought it was best to warn you."

Cyborg glanced back at the TV screen, obviously wanting to get back to his video game.

"So, when are the kids coming?"

The sound of a jet landing on the tower's roof echoed through the room.

"Right now."

As Robin ran to the staircase, Cyborg sighed sadly while turning off his video game. Suddenly, Robin turned around.

"Hey, while I go get them, can you guys hide any knives?"

Beast Boy glanced at the kitchen knives that were a good five feet off the ground.

"They're too high for the little kids to reach, dude..."

"If Damian sees them, he'll manage a way to get them. Since I do not want Tim to get stabbed, it would just be better if you guys hid the knives."

Then he was gone, running to bring their current charges into the tower.

As soon as Robin left, Beast Boy dashed to the knives, and quickly shoved them onto the top shelf.

Meanwhile on the roof, Robin made it onto the roof just as Batman ushered out three boys and one small girl. All four children had mirrored sunglasses hiding their eyes from view.

The oldest boy, Jason, had his hair styled as if he had purposefully messed it up before getting on the Bat Jet. He was wearing a dark red sweatshirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He pulled a red suitcase behind him.

Walking directly behind Jason was Tim. The boy had his hair neatly combed, hanging slightly on his face. He was wearing a light blue polo, gray dress pants, and black dress shoes. He was pulling a small black suitcase, clutched the box of a thousand-piece puzzle, and had a small black computer bag strapped to his shoulder.

Behind the young boy was the slightly older Cassandra. Her ebony hair was cut just above her shoulders, and slightly covered her sharp features. She wore a lavender summer dress with shiny black flats. Behind her she was tugging on a purple suitcase.

Trailing behind his older three siblings was tiny Damian. The small child had his hair in a near buzz cut. He was wearing a tee shirt with the head of a cat in the center, blue jeans, and nice white tennis shoes. He pulled a dark green suitcase over the bumps of the Bat Jet's ramp.

When the children saw their older brother, Tim gasped happily and ran towards him, his computer bag banging against his side, his puzzle rattling in it's box, and his suitcase bouncing behind him.

"Dick!"

As the boy ran into him, Robin put an arm around his shoulder, giving the child a small hug.

"Timmy, remember that you have to call me 'Robin' around my teammates, okay?"

"Of course!"

Still holding his brother, Robin turned towards Batman.

"Why do they have suitcases? I thought they were only going to be here for the afternoon."

As soon as he was sure Damian was off the ramp, Batman answered his eldest son."

"... I'll be back in a week. If there are any emergencies, call Alfred, who will contact me."

Then he was in the jet and gone.

Needless to say, Robin was annoyed.

However, he hid this so he could help the kids down the stairs and into the tower.

"Why is your tower shaped like a giant 'T'? Any villain can know exactly where you guys are."

"... Shut up Jason."

As they enter the main room, Starfire quickly flew to meet them.

"Friend Robin! These are your little brothers and small sister?"

Closing the door as Damian came through, Robin answered.

"Yeah, this would be them."

Soon all the Titans were surrounding the children.

"So, who's who?" Cyborg asked, craning his neck to see the small kids. Robin did his best to get Tim to not hide behind him, ultimately giving up, before answering.

"This is Jason," The teen rose a hand to signal who he was, a bored expression on his face.

"Cass," The girl gave a small wave.

"Tim," The boy poked his head out from behind Robin's back, and said a quiet "Hi."

"and Damian." The small child merely scowled in response.

Raven looked at the children with mild interest.

"How long are we taking care of them?"

Robin sighed at the question, then answered through gritted teeth.

"Apparently, a whole week."

While most of the Titans looked shocked, Starfire squealed slightly in joy.

"A whole week with the little siblings of Robin? This shall be glorious!"

As the alien princess nearly glowed with happiness, Jason just stared at her. Noticing his brother's gaze, Robin bent over and whispered in the teen's ear.

"Hate to tell you this, Jay, but Star's already taken."

Jason's enchantment with the beaming girl was broken by his brother's voice. He ripped his eyes in the older teen's direction, a slight glare present.

"By who?"

A large smirk was now on Robin's face.

"Me."

"... I hate you."

Beast Boy, trying to break the current awkwardness, saw the cat on Damian's shirt and did what he knew best as a result; he turned into a little kitten.

The previously annoyed Damian brightened nearly instantly. Abandoning his suitcase by the door to the staircase, the small boy walked directly to Beast Boy, and scooped the kitten up in his arms.

"Since you can turn into a cat, I have decided that you are currently my favorite of my brother's ragtag team."

Still holding Beast Boy, Damian formally walked over to the couch and sat down.

Robin then left the steaming Jason where he stood, taking Tim's hand and leading him towards Cyborg. Once they were in front of the older teen, Robin bent down to his brother's level.

"Timmy, I'm going to leave you with Cyborg. He's really good with computers, so you can show him that program you made. Okay?"

Looking up at the towering half-robot, Tim nearly shrunk down even more.

"... Can he do my puzzle with me afterwards?"

As Robin gave him a look, Cyborg answered for himself.

"Of course, little guy."

Smiling slightly, Tim let go of Robin's hand. He then proceeded to struggle into one of the table's tall chairs, eventually making it in. His laptop was soon pulled out of it's case, and opened up as Cyborg took a spot behind the boy.

Content with the position his two youngest brothers were in, Robin turned back to where he left Jason and Cass.

Only to see Starfire holding Cass's hand, leading the girl to the alien's own room, Raven trailing behind silently.

Which left an unsurprisingly angry Jason standing alone, mumbling under his breath and his arms crossed.

Rolling his eyes underneath his mask, Robin walked over to the young teen.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Jay."

Jason groaned in response.

"Can you just show me to my room?"

Smiling slightly, Robin led Jason to one of the tower's many spare rooms. As soon as the door was opened, the younger teen pulled his suitcase in, then ran to the bed, collapsing on it. He then took off his sunglasses, leaving them abandoned on the floor.

"You can go now."

"Are you sure you don't want me to tell you stories about the Titans and me?"

"... Yes."

"Alright, I guess I'll just organize my case files..."

As Robin started walking away slowly, Jason bit his lip, then called out.

"Dick... could you tell me about that creepy Slade guy that you never want to talk to Bruce about, no matter how many times he asks?"

Robin was back in the room seconds later, locking the door behind him and discarding his mask next to Jason's sunglasses. He then jumped onto the bed, and enthralled his brother with stories of his team's victories.

Four hours later, the young teen was still just as interested.

"How'd you get him to let you go?"

"I affected myself with the same probes that the Titans had. It was either turn them off, or I, his 'apprentice', died right along with my team. Once those dumb things weren't being used as leverage anymore, we were easily able to defeat the creep."

Jason stared at his brother in awe.

"That's freaking awesome!"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Hey, Rob, we were thinking we could take the kids out for pizza."

Grabbing his mask off the the floor, Robin jumped from the bed and headed towards the door as he answered.

"Great idea, Cyborg. Jason and I will be out in a minute."

As Cyborg's heavy footsteps moved away from the room, a quiet "Yea!" was heard from Tim.

Opening the door, Robin turned towards Jason.

"You coming?"

His sunglasses were on in a second, and a second later he was standing next to his brother.

"Duh, I'm not missing pizza. Bruce hates it, so I _never get any!_"

Laughing, Robin left the room, his brother following him. As soon as they entered the main room, Starfire flew up to them.

"Friend Robin! Your little sister is most adorable, and quite enjoyable company. However, she would not speak with us! Was Raven and I doing something wrong?"

"No, Star. Cass rarely talks. I have to ask, though... What exactly did you do with her?"

His question was answered when the girl came up behind him and tugged on his cape, making him turn around.

Robin was rather surprised to see Cass with her short black hair in dozens of small ponytails.

"... Never mind."

A moment later, Beast Boy was running up to him.

"Dude! That little kid would not let me go! And when he turned on the TV, he was watching some boring documentary!"

"That is the consequence for turning into a cat around Damian. Thanks for that, by the way. I haven't seen him that happy when Batman wasn't training him in ages."

As he finished speaking, Damian walked up to him and put his hand in Robin's own gloved one, not even looking up while doing so.

When the group walked into the garage, Cyborg and Tim were already at the T-Car, waiting for them. As Robin was helping Damian into his seat, Cyborg confronted him.

"Rob, why didn't you tell me your brother is a genius? He made a highly complicated, fully functional computer program... by himself."

"Yep."

"Then we worked on his puzzle, and he got about half of it done; we were only working on it for ten minutes!"

"Not surprising."

Soon both Damian and Cass were strapped into the car. It was then, as he was helping Tim in, that Robin realized a problem.

"Guys... there are not enough seats for all of us."

Cyborg looked into the car.

"Well, what do you know. Even with the seat belts I added to make it to the highest capacity instead of just what is comfortable, we still need two more spots."

Jason looked up suddenly upon hearing the words. His head then turned to Robin, then to the R-Cycle, then back to Robin.

A moment later, Jason was catching the spare helmet that Robin tossed him as as they climbed onto the custom motorcycle.

"We'll meet you guys there."

As the motorcycle raced out of the garage, Jason threw his hands up and gave a whoop of excitement.

The rest of the night went without incident, though the kid-friendly movie they watched upon returning from pizza made Jason roll his eyes behind his sunglasses many times, and loud huffs could be heard from the young teen throughout the whole movie. Soon, it was time to get the children into bed.

Since Jason was the only one who had not gone off to do other things upon first arrival, first the other three children had to be assigned rooms. After that mess was wrapped up (Damian had complained that Tim had a larger room then him, and that this was wrong because he was obviously of far more importance than the older boy. He never seemed to realize every room was the same size.), he convinced them all to get into their pajamas.

After giving them fifteen minutes to do so, Robin started going around to the different rooms to turn off the light, youngest to oldest.

Which meant Damian was first.

When Robin slowly open the door to the young child's room, he found his littlest brother organizing papers at the desk in the corner of the room. He had to stop himself from commenting on how adorable the child was in his footy pajamas with a cat tail and a little hood that had cat ears.

But Damian was beyond adorable. The annoyed scowl that was almost always on his face wasn't even enough to ruin it. In fact, that might have even made it cuter.

A few minutes later, he was closing the door to the room. Cass and Tim also went without incident, not arguing at all when he came in.

Jason had yelled for about thirty minutes, but he eventually tired himself out, and Robin was able to leave knowing his brother would sleep.

When he reentered the main room, he collapsed on the couch.

"Well, that wasn't too hard. How bad could six more days be?"

**I love myself some Batfam. That, plus TT, equals something that I would appreciate reviews for.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this chapter took awhile; a lot has happened since Chapter 1. The last Artemis Fowl book came out, I pretty sure the new Spiderman movie was in the last two weeks, new issue of Batman and Robin came out, and I had a Batman movie marathon to prepare for the last movie next week.  
**

**But the chapter is done now. Even if I am not completely content with it...  
**

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.  
**

Robin had forgotten what is was like to be woken up by Jason leading an oblivious Tim on a raid of his room, and ultimately an attack on him.

As the 13-year-old and 9-year-old jumped onto his chest, he decided he did not miss it much.

"Get up, Dick! It's time for breakfast!"

"Yeah, breakfast!"

Blinking the sleep out of his currently fogged blue eyes, Robin sat up as much as he could with the two boys on his chest.

"Okay you two, if you get off of me and let me get dressed, I'll make you guys breakfast."

Jason's back straightened, and he got off of his brother, marching off, with Tim running to catch up with him. As the two closed the door, Robin grabbed a costume from his closet.

As he started pulling the skintight costume on, Robin happened to glance at the clock. He stopped as he was pulling on his bright green tights to stare at the numbers. After blinking a few times, the young hero angrily tugged his boots onto his feet, and slapped his mask on before stomping into the kitchen. Though all of his younger siblings were present, he moved directly towards the oldest boy.

"Jason, would you mind explaining the time?"

The boy shrugged in his red pajamas.

"Bruce gets us up for training everyday at this time, so we are used to getting up now. Since there is really nothing to do, and we're hungry, Tim and I volunteered to get you up."

"It is freaking 5:30!"

Jason tutted at his older brother.

"Dick, watch your language around the children!"

Robin glared fiercely at his teen brother before sighing, annoyed, and grabbing a frying pan.

"Okay, how does omelets sound to you guys?"

There were quick nods of heads around the table. With his idea approved, Robin sluggishly moved towards the fridge and pulled out the ingredients necessary for the meal. About ten minutes later, he was passing out the plates. When the children started eating, he collapsed into an open chair and let his head fall onto his chest, and started drifting into sleep.

A mere few seconds later, he was quickly awoken by a sweet voice directly next to him.

"You are quite gifted with children, Robin."

Blinking to wake himself up, the teen hero looked up to see Starfire smiling down at him.

"Oh, good morning, Star."

The alien's smile turned downwards upon realizing Robin's pure exhaustion, and worry overcame her expressions.

"Is anything of the matter? Usually you are fine without as much sleep as our friends..."

Soon Starfire saw Robin smiling up at her tiredly.

"It's nothing, Star. I'm just not much of a morning person..."

Suddenly Jason popped in between them, smirking.

"Yeah, he's a night BAT!"

Robin glared lightly at his younger brother.

"Jay, that's a dumb joke."

As the young teen childishly stuck his tongue out at Robin, Starfire laughed lightly at their antics, gathering both brothers' attention.

"What's funny, orange lady?"

"JASON!"

A large smile was still on the princess's face as she answered the rude teen's question.

"It is just that is amusing to see you interact with your brother. Why have you never told me about your siblings before?"

Jason looked surprised for a moment, then a large grin spread across his face.

"Yeah, Robin, why didn't you tell your own girlfriend about your sweet and innocent younger brothers and sister?"

Robin wanted to attack the cocky young teen standing next to him, but knew he couldn't with both the younger children and Starfire there.

Deciding that he would get revenge on Jason later, he settled with glaring fiercely at his brother.

"I never thought I would get the chance to introduce you to them, so I didn't find it necessary."

"To be honest, I never thought I'd get to meet you guys. Usually Bats just gets Batgirl to babysit us, but she's busy this week."

Robin suddenly froze, and turned slowly towards Jason.

"You mean to tell me that I, your actual older brother, am the backup babysitter?"

"Yeah, weird, right? I think Bats doesn't trust your team or something... You know how overprotective he gets..."

While Robin's eye started twitching underneath his mask, Tim came over to the three and tugged slightly on his older brother's cape.

"Robin? Will you play Batman and Robin with me?"

The child's suggestion suddenly gave him an idea.

"I know what we can do. How about I be Batman, and you can all be Robin."

Tim wrinkled his nose in thought.

"But, what about Cassie?"

"... She can be Batgirl."

"But... There can't be three Robins!"

"Why not?"

Tim opened his mouth to answer, then closed it when he couldn't think of a good reason why there could not be three Robins.

"... Can we wear your capes?"

Jason and Damian, who had grown interested when they realized they were being mentioned, nodded with enthusiasm, causing a small smile to grace the teen hero's features.

"Yes, Tim, you can each wear one of my capes. I'll go get them."

As he walked towards his room to get the capes, he passed Raven on her way into the main room. She tended to get up early and head up to the roof to meditate, so seeing her did not surprise him at all. If it had been, say, Beast Boy, who rarely got up before nine, then he would have paused in his quest for capes. Since this was not the case, he was soon in his room.

First he grabbed three capes from the front of his closet, setting them gently on his bed. Digging to the back of the closet, he pulled out two of the black and gray capes he had used as Red X. Deciding they would do for Batman and Batgirl, he took his own cape off and put on one of the darker fabrics, allowing it to fall onto his shoulders like a shadow covering him. Soon, he was back in the hallway, carrying the four capes while his own billowed behind him dramatically.

When he had returned to his younger siblings, each was handed there capes. It fit Jason perfectly, and billowed just as well as Robin's own cape did as he struck a heroic pose.

The other three, however, had their capes dragging behind them on the floor as they played, following the only real Robin around as they pretended to fight off Gotham's many rogues, their mock fights always ending in victory.

Starfire sat on the couch, smiling brightly as her beloved played with his younger siblings. Soon, Raven came down from the roof and joined her, watching with an interested expression and a ghost of a smile. It was not long before Cyborg joined them, and Beast Boy eventually dragged himself out of bed and joined the throng. The whole time, The five Bats just continued with their imaginary world, taking no notice of what was really going on.

That is, until disaster struck.

"Batman! Catwoman is getting away!"

Damian's stuffed cat that was acting as Catwoman may have not have actually moved an inch, but "Batman" still acted immediately.

"Robin, Robin, and Robin, try to cut her off. Batgirl, come with me as we try to get the necklace back."

The necklace was admittedly just some plastic beads they found lying on the floor, but that was completely besides the point.

"Stop, Catwoman!" Jason shouted, sticking out one hand in a 'stop' motion with his two younger brothers standing directly behind him.

As the cat was "distracted", Cass snatched the beads from underneath its paw and silently handed them to "Batman".

"Great work, Robins and Batgirl! We have defeated Catwoman!"

"This is fascinating, Robin. I did not know you had such an active imagination," spoke a voice that froze Robin in his tracks immediately.

A mere second later he was swiftly turning towards the source of the chilling voice, praying that he had heard wrong and that it was someone else who had spoken to him.

However, upon seeing the image on the Titan's large TV screen, it was the very man that he feared it would be that greeted his masked eyes.

"Slade," he snarled, his eyes narrowing behind his mask and a fierce scowl twisting his features.

"That weird creepy guy that you told me about? What's he doing on your TV?"

Robin yet again froze in fear. Slade was finally reappearing after the Trigon incident, which in the long-run could be seen as either good or very, very bad.

However, it was a full out disaster seeing as his little brothers and sister were there.

"Why, I didn't know you knew any _children_ well enough to talk to them about even _me_."

Robin started to shake slightly in anger, and grabbed the wrist of his nearest sibling, which happened to be Tim, and pulled him behind his back.

"Stay away from them."

Tim, Cass, and Damian looked up at Robin, confused by the pure fury in their brother's voice. Jason, who actually knew something about Slade, started to back away.

"Ahh, overprotective, I see. Perhaps you more then just 'know' them... Siblings, maybe?"

Tim spoke from behind his brother's back.

"Robin? Who's this guy?"

As the teen hero opened his mouth, trying to think of a safe answer, a wicked laugh came from the screen.

"Seeing as you did not deny my theory, I'll take that as a yes."

Turning away from the children, Robin was soon snarling at the criminal again.

"What do you want, Slade?"

"I was originally planning on just warning you and your team that I was back, but this is far more interesting."

Robin tried to stop Jason as the boy stomped towards the screen. Stopping that boy was like trying to stop a tank, though. Soon, the young teen was directly in front of the screen and yelling.

"You creep! Messing with Rob was sick enough; but little kids? How messed up are you?"

As Robin moved forward to pull Jason back, Slade spoke words that chilled his blood and made both him and Jason stop in their tracks.

"You are not the most polite boy, are you, Mr. Todd?"

Jason's mouth dropped open, shock evident on his face.

"Wha-how-"

Suddenly, the screen turned off, leaving the children and teens shocked.

Starfire flew over to Robin, a very worried expression on her face.

"Robin, why did Slade call Jason 'Todd'?"

The teen hero grabbed Damian and Tim's hands, and starting leading them into their rooms, Jason and Cass trailing behind.

"Because he knows something that _no one _should know."

Beast Boy ran to catch up with the leader.

"Well, what do we do now?"

With a very serious expression, Robin walked into Damian's room, made sure the windows were locked, and set the boy on his bed, handing him the stuffed cat that never left his possession during the conversation with Slade.

"We make sure there is no way for Slade to look more into them. If he tries to make a move towards them, we'll fight back."

Soon Tim was in his room, and Cass in hers. However, when the group arrived at Jason's room, the boy would not go in.

"I want to help!"

"No."

"Why not? Batman said I was almost ready to go on patrol with him!"

"Yes. _Patrol_. If any sign of a serious threat showed up, I can guarantee you he would send you back to the Batmobile. This is more than just a threat, Jay. Slade is very, very dangerous. We can't take any risks."

Realizing just how serious the situation was, Jason walked into his room and laid down on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

During that day, Robin was constantly pacing, practically waiting for something to happen. Cyborg made food for the team and children when meals came around, but Robin couldn't eat anything. Usually when Robin got so obsessed with Slade, it would worry the Titans.

But this time, they understood why he would be so paranoid and worried.

That night, most Titans decided that it seemed that Slade would not make a move that day, a decided to go to bed. Robin checked the door of each of his siblings' rooms, making sure they were locked. He then sat in the main room, refusing to fall asleep.

However, at about four in the morning of the next day, his head started drifting downward, and he was soon fast asleep.

Asleep enough that he didn't see four Slade bots silently slip into the tower. He didn't notice when the doorknobs of the children's rooms were broken off, waking the occupants inside and letting the robots access at the same time. He couldn't have seen cloths with chloroform be pressed against his younger siblings' faces to stop their struggling. He was still asleep when the four robots left with the limp bodies.

However, the next morning he jolted awake. Jumping for the nearest clock, he clutched it as he read the time: 8:30.

Robin dashed for the rooms, praying that his fears were wrong.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw the broken doorknob. It was not long before he was once again running, barreling into Damian's room.

"Dami?"

True fear overcame his body when he saw the empty bed.

It was like some unseen force overcame his body as he ran into each room.

"Timmy?"

Nothing but his nearly finished puzzle on the floor and open laptop on the bed.

"Cass?"

The room was as empty as the first two.

"Jay?"

The room was tussled from an obvious struggle. Sheets were draped across the room, and the nightstand next to Jason's bed was knocked over, the lamp that was on it broken.

When the Titans started walking up soon afterwards, they saw Robin bent over on the couch in the main room, a picture of misery.

"They're gone," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "They're just gone."

**... I've never written for Slade before. I'm... not sure if like how I wrote him.**

**Ahh well...  
**

**Right! Almost forgot;  
**

**If anyone is willing to create a cover for this story, I'll write a one-shot for them of their choosing. There are some things I can't write, but that can be discussed afterwards.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Shorter chapter this time, but... I think the ending works.**

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.  
**

Jason's vision was blurred as he sat up, clutching his aching head. As the young teen looked around groggily, the first thing he noticed was Cass, Tim, and Damian lying unconscious on the cold concrete. At first, he was immensely confused by this, because the last he could remember was playing with Dick at the older teen's team's tower. It was as he attempted to stand up, puzzled, that he realized he was chained to the floor.

It was then that he was overcome with memories of the full events of the day before. Fear clenched his heart as he realized what had happened. They had been kidnapped, surely by Slade.

The very same man who somehow knew who he was, despite the fact that he was wearing mirrored sunglasses. If Slade knew who he was, then surely he had to know who Dick was, and that could only mean the villain knew Bruce was Batman.

As his mind went off on these very negative thoughts, another popped right into his head, causing the boy to reach desperately near his face, only to be both disappointed and horrified by what he didn't find there.

His sunglasses were gone. Admittedly, it didn't make much of a difference if the creep already knew who he was, but it was still nice to have them. Looking around at his younger siblings, all of which were starting to rouse, he realized that none of them had the shades covering their eyes.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

Soon, he saw Cass slowly sit up, her wide brown eyes looking around, completely confused about the situation. It was not long after that Tim starting blinking his eyes, trying to get the blur out of his visions, and was studying the room curiously.

Damian sat up a minute or so later, and glanced around, absorbing his surroundings.

After a few minutes, Tim turned towards the older boy, slight fear in his dark blue eyes.

"Jay," the child started, his voice quiet and hesitant. "Where are we?"

Before Jason got the chance to answer his younger brother and attempt to mitigate the child's fears, even if it meant fibbing just a little bit, a cold voice spoke first.

"Your new home,"

The voice caused a shiver to go down Jason's spine before he turned towards the source, hatred evident in his light blue eyes.

"What do you want, you sicko?" the young teen barked.

Instead of answering the boy, Slade slowly walked into the room, his metal boots echoing on the cold concrete floor with each step.

"My, it seems you have an even hotter temper than your older 'brother'. Of course, you aren't actually related, are you, Mr. Todd?"

The man had a slight mocking undertone to his voice as he spoke, causing Jason's anger to ignite even more.

"How the hell do you know that?"

Slade chuckled coldly before answering.

"Why, an orphaned billionaire disappears for years, comes back, and there is suddenly a masked vigilante running around? And when this same billionaire adopts a circus orphan, the vigilante has an acrobatic sidekick? As time passes, this billionaire's first son goes to 'boarding school' just as Robin forms the Teen Titans in Jump City? Really, it is just _too_ easy."

Cold dread washed over Jason with every word the criminal spoke. Behind him, he heard Tim whimper quietly.

"What do you want with us?" he asked, trying his best to sound brave.

Slade walked directly in front of the teen before he answered.

"Your older brother was once my apprentice-"

"Yeah, but he and his team kicked your sorry butt!"

Annoyance was evident in the villain's one eye as he continued onward.

"Yes, one could say that. However, I still looked for one to train after this failed attempt. After another... incident, I thought I had to abandon the idea of an apprentice."

Jason didn't know why the villain was ranting about apprentices; being honest, he didn't really care.

"What does that have to do with us?" he yelled, severe annoyance in his voice.

The young teen didn't like the answer.

"Well, four children with the same training of my first and nearly _perfect_ apprentice leave the safety of their cave? The opportunity is far too tempting."

It took Jason a moment to even figure out what Slade meant. When he did, though, his eyes narrowed in anger.

"There is no way any of us will work you, you freaking sicko!"

Slade continued on calmly, as if not noticing the hatred radiating off of the boy.

"Well, I couldn't expect the other three, they are far too young right now. You, on the other hand..."

A fierce scowl graced Jason's features as he answered.

"Why would I work for you exactly?"

Slade started walking towards the children as he answered.

"While your siblings are, as I said earlier, still far too young to be useful as apprentices, that does not mean time will not change that. Miss Cain and young Damian both have had training as _assassins _in the past; obviously, that could be useful in the future," as he spoke, the man stopped in front of Tim, who backed away as far as the short chain around his left ankle allowed, pure terror in his eyes.

"This one, however, has no previous training, no experience that forced him to learn to fight, and, if the files that I hacked off of your father's computer is correct, is failing constantly in almost all physical areas of training. While he seems to excel in mental divisions, one needs both to be my apprentice; put bluntly, _I don't need him_."

As he said this, the villain reached down and grabbed the child by the scruff of his red pajamas, pulling him off the ground and causing him to call out in both surprise and slight pain as the shackle dug into his ankle.

Jason lunged forward as Slade held up his little brother, a scream being ripped from his vocal cords.

"You put him down!"

The criminal answered in a demanding voice.

"I won't hurt him if you promise to serve me as my apprentice."

Jason knew what he had to do to protect Tim. He hated it, but it was truly the only way.

"Fine," he said through gritted teeth, "now put him down."

Slade opened his fisted hand, allowing Tim's small body to crash onto the floor in a crumpled heap, all but the back of his head hidden from Jason's view.

"I'll be back with your uniform soon," Slade said as he started to walked towards the door. Before exiting, the villain stopped, and spoke a final time to the furious teen.

"You should feel honored; it is not often that a _street rat_ is made the apprentice of a world-famous mercenary."

With that, he was gone, the leaving the room empty except for a few scared kids and a furious teen.

"What's going to happen, Jay?" Tim asked, wincing as he turned again towards his older brother.

Jason looked into the wide blue eyes that were so full of fear and wished he could lie about everything going right. But as he saw the child's leg that was obviously bent in a way it should not have been, and thought about what he had just gotten himself into to protect his little brother, he knew he couldn't pretend.

"I don't know, Timmy. I.. just don't know."

**... Please do not kill me. **

**The Titans will be back next chapter.  
**

**Please review... and not kill me.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, it has been a little while... But I have been busy. I've also been working on this, it is just... really long...**

**...Though, being honest, I'm not very fond of this chapter. Despite its length, not much happens in it... You'll see why soon.  
**

**I do not own TT or Batman.  
**

Robin was a bit paranoid. Years of being trained by Batman and having younger siblings in Gotham had instilled this in his system.

So, with the same younger siblings that he constantly worried about getting kidnapped by the same creep that had blackmailed, threatened, and even nearly killed him in the past... Well, he was obviously not going to be particularly calm during this situation.

The Titans understood this. They really did.

That didn't stop them from being slightly scared by the pure fury that radiated off their leader as he angrily typed into the computer, trying to find anything that could be a hint to where his siblings were.

Robin was meanwhile staring at the screen, flicking through different possibilities for where Slade may have taken his brothers and sister. As more locations kept being proven impossible, he became completely desperate. He had to get them back... They were too young to go through the pain that having any contact with Slade inevitably brought.

That man could not put his siblings through the same tortures that he himself had gone through. Robin couldn't let Slade darken Jason's bright, mischievous eyes. To scar the boy even farther then he had been when Robin had met the boy four years ago...

_Robin smiled smugly at Batman as the last of a large group of thugs they had been fighting fell to the ground unconscious. The older hero responded only in a nod, leaving the boy standing there as he moved forward. Robin rolled his eyes underneath his mask before running to catch up with his mentor._

_ "Where to now, Batman?" the boy asked once he made it to the older hero's side._

_ "Home. You need to get to bed, you have a test tomorrow."_

_ Robin stopped walking as he heard the words, his face blank. Soon, he was once again running to catch up with Batman._

_ "B-But... What are you doing?"_

_ "Two-Face broke out of Arkham today."_

_ The boy shivered slightly in fear._

_ "I-I don't like Two-Face..."_

_ The two heroes then turned the corner onto Crime Alley, where the Batmobile had been parked. Only to be completely shocked._

_ A small child was standing next to the car, a tire iron clutched in his hands, grease coating his hands and splashed on his face, and the tires of the Batmobile were piled next to him._

_ When the boy saw Batman and Robin, the tire iron fell from his small hand, clattering onto the concrete below. The same hands suddenly flew into the air._

_ "I'm innocent!"_

_ While Batman was reaching behind his back to grab handcuffs, Robin put out an arm to stop him. The boy started to slowly walk towards the younger child._

_ "It's okay. We aren't going to hurt you. Can you just tell me why you were stealing the wheels?"_

_ The younger boy was taking steps away from the approaching hero slowly._

_ "I need the money!"_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Well.. For obvious reasons!"_

_ "No. If it was for 'obvious reasons', you wouldn't have been desperate enough to steal from the freaking Batman. What is the real reason?"_

_ The child glanced around nervously, then turned back to the heroes._

_ "I-I can't talk about it out here..."_

_ Batman took this as a cue._

_ "We can talk in the Batcave. You can get in the car while I reattach the wheels."_

_ Robin smiled at the boy encouragingly as he got into the back of the Batmobile, the young hero jumping into the shotgun seat. As the door closed, an awkward silence filled the air._

_ "So... What's your name?" Robin asked, attempting to clear the air._

_ "... Jason." The boy, now known as Jason, mumbled quietly._

_ "How old are you?"_

_ "Nine..."_

_ The mumbled number surprised the young hero. A boy that young, living on the streets, stealing to live... That wasn't right. That wasn't right as all._

_ Soon, Batman was in the driver's seat, and silence filled the vehicle._

_ It was not long before the three arrived at the Batcave. As they exited, Batman directed Jason towards a small chair before he had even had time to take in the scenery._

_ "Now, explain."_

_ Jason's dark blue eyes wandered to his feet as he spoke._

_ "Well, it started when my dear old dad abandoned my mom and me a couple years ago to be in Two-Face's gang full time. It was only about a year before she overdosed on drugs and died. I was alone then, see, and was making ends meet as best as I could until a couple of months ago when I found out that Dad had stolen some money from Two-Face; obviously, he's not really with us anymore. Apparently, though, he hid the money, so that maniac couldn't find it. Somehow he found out about me, though, so he came and demanded that I pay him back. It... it's a lot of cash... He got arrested a couple days later, though, so I didn't think of it much... Until he broke out today..."_

_ The boy looked scared. That was truly the only way to describe it._

_ Robin knew why he would be, though. Two-Face was not one to be taken lightly. Especially if he happened to have a baseball bat on him..._

_ The young hero's attention was drawn back to Jason when Batman started speaking again._

_ "We can protect you from him,..."_

_ "Jason," Robin suddenly said, smiling slightly._

_ The Boy looked at the two oddly._

_ "How?"_

_ Robin could not handle just looking at the broken boy just sitting there. His arms were soon wrapped around Jason's near shaking shoulders._

_ "We won't let him hurt you, Jaybird. No matter what."_

_ "Wait... Where did 'Jaybird' come from?"_

_ "... I liked it?"_

_ As the hug was released and the two children laughed, Batman realized that the small boy had head-butted his way into their small family._

Jason had to be okay... The boy was surprisingly strong then, he could be strong now. Not even Slade could break his brother's pure stubbornness...

More locations flashed across the screen in front of him, all being impossible for various reasons. The young hero scowled at the screen. Slade couldn't have taken his siblings too far away in such short time...

As he continued searching, Robin kept ensuring himself that Jason could hold strong. But what about Cass, who was still learning how to trust others? Slade could possibly spiral her into a direction even worse than when she had been found during a case only half a year after Jason had been taken in...

_Robin, admittedly, wanted to get home. Jason had the flu, and he wanted to be there for his little brother. Unfortunately, it was just that day that Bruce had finally found the clues that led them to the hideout of the assassin, David Cain. After informing Commissioner Gordon, they were soon outside the building, the police surrounding the premise as the Dynamic Duo did a final debriefing with the Commissioner, Detective Bullock, and Detective Montoya._

_ "Robin and I will go in and detain him," Batman started, the young hero nodding in confirmation._

_ "Well, there is a bit of a complication.." Montoya said, looking a bit worried._

_ "That would be?"_

_ "It has been discovered that Cain has... a daughter."_

_ Though Batman did not visibly show any surprise, Robin gaped at the woman._

_ "How old is she?"_

_ "Seven years old."_

_ Bullock, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke._

_ "The kid should probably be the one to find her. Bats would scare her."_

_ Gordon looked at Bullock seriously._

_ "Considering who her father is, it is likely that few things would truly scare her."_

_ As the three turned back to where Batman and Robin had been standing only seconds before, they found an empty space._

_ "Y'know, I really hate it when they do that..." Bullock grumbled._

_ Meanwhile, inside the building, Batman went up the staircase to where he knew Cain was hiding in wait, completely aware of his quite possible impeding arrest. Robin, however, was looking around for the small girl they were told about._

_ The boy walked down an empty hallway, the floorboards creaking underneath his boots. However, he was listening for any sign of a child. This was a little girl; surely he would hear her singing to herself or something._

_ The only sound he ended up hearing, though, was slight whimpering._

_ As he quickly dashed into the room where the sound was coming from, he was shocked by what he saw._

_ A little girl shivered on a small bed underneath a thin, washed-out blanket. She was cradling her arm, which had a large gash marring her skin. There was no decorations in the room, no personal features. It looked more like a cell than a bedroom._

_ And it held that small little girl._

_ Said child looked up shocked as Robin entered slowly. She backed into the back of her bed as he moved closer._

_ "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."_

_ The fear in her eyes seemed to subside a bit, but she still looked distrustful, and would not speak._

_ "I'm here to help you. I'm going to get you away from your father safely. Would you like that?"_

_ She nodded hesitantly. He took her hand and lead her towards the door, smiling encouragingly as they walked._

_ "Are you going to actually say something?"_

_ She shook her head slightly._

_ "Why not?"_

_ The girl suddenly looked down slightly, making Robin realize why she had no spoken._

_ "You don't know how to talk?"_

_ She nodded slowly._

_ Anger boiled inside the young hero, but he contained it as to not scare the child._

_ "Don't worry, I'm sure once you're out of here we can fins someone who can teach you..."_

_ Soon, they were outside, Batman following behind with a restrained David Cain. As he saw his daughter clutching Robin's hand, he started yelling._

_ "No! You couldn't have found Cassandra! She can't even call out!"_

_ Robin glared at the man darkly._

_ "You do realize that even if you are such an awful parent that you don't bother teaching your __daughter how to speak, she will whimper if you hurt her."_

_ A hate-filled glare was sent at the Boy Wonder as Cain was led away. The small girl, now known as Cassandra, shrunk away slightly, as if thinking the glare was directed at her._

_ Soon, Gordon walked towards the young hero who was trying calm the child._

_ "Where is she going to go?" Robin asked the commissioner as soon as he was within hearing distance._

_ "The orphanage, probably."_

_ The Boy Wonder looked at Gordon, shocked._

_ "She can't even talk! Those orphanages are brutal enough without that!"_

_ "I know, but it's hard to find suitable homes in Gotham."_

_ It was not long before Cassandra was taken off, and Batman came back, the duo then proceeding to returning to the Batmobile. As they started driving away, Robin couldn't stop thinking about the girl._

_ "We'll have to explain to Jason why it took longer then expected..." Bruce suddenly noted, interrupting his young partner's thoughts._

_ "Yeah, I guess... Do you think that girl will find someone who can take care of her?"_

_ "In Gotham? Not likely..."_

_ They sat in silence for a moment._

_ "You want me to adopt her."_

_ "...Pleeeeaaaassse..."_

_ The Dark Knight sat in thought for a moment before speaking.  
"I'll do my best."_

_ Dick smiled at his mentor brightly. _

_ As the Batmobile parked in the Batcave, the young hero flipped out of the car and ran up the staircase into the manor._

_ "Master Richard, you know how I feel about costumes in the manor!" Alfred called out as Dick passed him._

_ "I'll take it off in a minute, Alfie! I just want to talk to Jay first."_

_ Soon he skidded into Jason's room, where the boy was lying in bed, glaring at the wall. When his brother entered, the boy looked up, glad to finally have someone else there._

_ "Guess what, Jay!"_

_ "... What?"_

_ "We're gonna get a little sister!"_

_ "... What?"_

The abandoned warehouse on Dock 7... no, that was just recently bought by a shipping company that had started moving in the week before... Maybe that old factory on 7th St... No, that was torn down a couple days ago...

Robin had to push back frustrated and fearful tears as more and more areas were deemed a negative. They had to be somewhere...

The young hero tried to calm himself down, repeating in his mind over and over that they had training, they could protect themselves, that everything would be alright...

Except, Tim was struggling in physical training at the moment. He was slowly getting better, but Robin couldn't lie to himself and say that Slade wouldn't want anything but the best.

Or that Slade wouldn't use the child's weaknesses against him.

The Boy Wonder shook his head quickly to clear his thoughts. Tim was smart, he could figure out a way to stay safe by other means, surely...

As he let these thoughts circle through his mind, the memory of when he first met the young genius managed to sneak its way into his consciousness, diving him into the past yet again, about a half a year after Cass had been adopted.

_Dick, Jason, and Cass were all at yet another of Bruce's 'friend's' charity balls. Dick, being the most used to them, was practically radiating charisma he stood by Bruce's side, smiling at each every one of Gotham's elite who came over to attempt to get on Bruce's good side._

_ Jason and Cass, however, where not doing quite as well._

_ Jason could not stand still for more then twenty seconds, if even that long. He was constantly moving from foot to foot, shuffling awkwardly. Anytime Bruce tried to introduce him to someone, the only expression on the boy's face was a fierce scowl and a glare._

_ Dick had to work hard to not give them the same look as they walked away whispering about how Jason was just a charity case and would be back on the streets in a couple of years._

_ Cass was hiding behind Bruce, clutching the man's hand desperately. Anytime he tried to move her into view of others, she literally refused to move. At all._

_ One would imagine that Dick would be completely distracted by his siblings, and would not notice his surroundings much. However, he was still completely aware of what was going on around him._

_ So, he could see the little boy who was staring at him clearly._

_ As he attempted to speak with Bette Kane about the school they both went to, he couldn't help but continue to glance back at the child. _

_ He was kind of terrified to see that the kid was still looking at him._

_ "Dick? Grayson? Are you listening to me?" Bette demanded, a light glare on her features._

_ "No, I'm afraid that he wasn't," Jason suddenly popped next to his brother, a smug grin on his face._

_ The response made the girl huff in annoyance and stomp off, nearly tripping on her long light blue dress and black high heels._

_ "You know, that was really obnoxious," Dick said, still distracted by the boy that was staring at him._

_ "Since when has that stopped me? What are you looking at, anyway?"_

_ "That kid over there that is staring at me..."_

_ Jason looked over Dick's shoulder._

_ "Heh... Creepy."_

_ "Yeah..."_

_ "Let's go talk to him."_

_ "Wait... What?"_

_ Jason was soon moving towards the boy, leaving Dick no choice but to follow his younger brother._

_ When the kid realized they were nearing him, he nearly jumped in shock. When they were standing in front of him, he was standing completely still in shock._

_ "Hey, kid, why were you staring at Dickie here?"_

_ "N-no real reason... H-he's Dick Grayson..."_

_ Jason rose a thin eyebrow._

_ "Why does that matter?"_

_ The child continued looking around nervously._

_ "I-I saw him preform when he was an acrobat..."_

_ Dick looked at the boy oddly._

_ "You would have been about two."_

_ "... I have a good memory..."_

_ Dick stared at him for a moment before speaking again._

_ "Umm... What's your name?"_

_ "Tim. Tim Drake," the boy, now known as Tim, said excited. _

_ Dick tried to think of something to say when a crashing sound echoed through the room. When __the three boys looked up to search for the source, their eyes were greeted with the sight of a laughing maniac._

_ The Joker had broken into the charity ball._

_ Dick instinctively reached for Jason's arm and pulled the boy behind his back. Being used to saving people he didn't even know, Tim was soon behind his back as well. The young teen searched his surroundings for a place to hide. After seeing a row of columns that had plenty of room for three boys, he led the children to the spot. Soon they were crouched, poking their heads around the corners to see what was happening._

_ "Woweee, look at all the nice clothing! I feel under-dressed!" The Joker spoke, his arms spread out, walking through the crowd, which was parting because no one wanted to be even near the psychopath._

_ Dick searched the crowd for Bruce, finding the man near one of the partings with Cass standing behind him, his hand wrapped around her own protectively. _

_ Unfortunately, the Joker seemed to notice Bruce as well. The clown sauntered towards the billionaire, his smile growing even larger with each step._

_ "Brucie! Long time no see! Seen your kiddies recently, but I haven't abducted you or broke into a party you were at in ages! How's it been in the house of Wayne?"_

_ Bruce merely glared at the madman, doing his best to keep Cassandra out of the clown's vision. Like many other things in the past few minutes, this didn't work out well._

_ "Well lookie here, it's little Cassie Cain! Doesn't she look cute today!"_

_ Dick could tell from his guardian's gritting teeth that the man wished desperately that he was able to fight back harder when the maniac reached for Cass's arm. Unfortunately, he could do no such thing, or risk exposing his identity, so he could only watch as his young daughter was ripped from his grasp._

_ "Does she still not talk?"_

_ The girl looked up at the Joker with wide, terrified eyes, but said nothing._

_ "... I'll take that as a yes."_

_ The Joker pushed Cass back at Bruce, and starting moving through the crowd again, causing Dick and Jason to both let out a breath of relief._

_ As the psycho walked through the herd of people, he stopped when he saw a man glaring at him instead of looking horrified. An expression of pure annoyance crossed the clown's face before he turned towards the man._

_ When Dick heard a quiet squeak behind him, he realized with a start that the man must be Tim's dad. He did look a bit like the small child, and the features that Tim did not share with the man seemed to have come from the woman standing directly next to his supposed father._

_ As Dick saw Bruce and Cass sneak off, he grabbed the small child's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. Bruce was going to come back in as Batman in a minute, and everything would be alright..._

_ "What are you looking at?" the clown snarled at the man._

_ Dick glanced at where he saw Bruce exit, praying for the man to come back in and trying to will Tim's father to not say anything dumb at the same time._

_ "A psychotic who doesn't seem to understand his place," the man said coldly._

_ Dick would have face palmed if it wouldn't have attracted attention. While the fact that Tim had even managed to remember him for so long proved the child was very intelligent, it looked like his father wasn't quite as bright._

_ The Joker, predictably, didn't react well to the words. While he did look shocked for a moment, pure fury soon overtook his features. In one fluid movement, the clown grabbed the arm of the woman standing next to Tim's father, making the same presumption that Dick had that she was the man's wife. The other hand was holding a gun seconds later, the barrel pressed against the woman's temple._

_ "You want to say that again?"_

_ Dick tried to stop Tim as he suddenly ran forward, but the child's fear gave him the strength to rush past the older boy._

_ "Mommy!"_

_ Time seemed to slow suddenly. The Joker obviously didn't expect a child to rush forward, and it was that surprise and shock that caused him to pull the trigger. Tim's mother collapsed on the ground, and lay there, cold and still, blood slowly leaking from her head._

_ "Opps... Look what you made me do, kid."_

_ Tim stared at his mother's body in horror, barely registering the Joker's words. He didn't seem to notice when the gun was suddenly pointed at him._

_ "Well, you seem to miss your mommy so much, you might as well join her,"_

_ Even though Dick saw Bruce finally reenter the ballroom as Batman, he knew that the man would never make it in time. The little child he just met would surely be killed by the bullet that was speeding towards him..._

_ The teen didn't expect to see the boy's father suddenly jump in front of the bullet, taking it in his own chest just as it was about to hit Tim, falling limply to the floor._

_ Before the Joker had time to react again, Batman was upon him, a swift punch to his head knocking the psycho out. _

_ As the police arrived and took the Joker away, Bruce snuck back out and got back into his civilian suit, coming back in with Cass by his side to join Dick and Jason on the sidelines._

_ Bruce noticed Dick's stare at the weeping Tim, who no one was able to pull away from his parents._

_ "I know what you're going to ask."_

_ "And your answer is?"_

_ "... This is the last one."_

"Robin..." Starfire tried to approach the young hero as he continued his search desperately, "Maybe it would be best if you rested for a moment.."

"I can't rest, Starfire," he responded fiercely. "The longer I wait, the more damage Slade can do to them..."

That old cave on the west side of the bay... No, that had caved in months ago... Maybe the old gym that closed last month... No, it had been bought by some Wilson guy a week later...

"Robin, what would Slade do to your siblings?"

"What would he do? He could torture them, force them to fight each other, force them to work for him... Whatever he does, it is not going to be good... They are so young, they can't go through that..."

And they truly were young. Even Damian, who had been trained to be an assassin when he first was discovered, would be tainted by the pain that Slade would undoubted cause...

_"Jason, you get back here with Timmy's teddy bear!"_

_ The boy skidded to a halt near the door to the manor, the stuffed bear clutched in his hand._

_ "I'll give it back if he promises to not tell Bruce about my fight in school!"_

_ Tim, who had settled next to Dick, yelled back. _

_ "Daddy needs to know!"_

_ "He does not!"_

_ As the two were fighting, Dick standing in-between, slightly confused, and very annoyed, Cass calmly walked behind Jason, grabbed the bear, walked over to Tim. It wasn't until the child called out in happiness upon realizing he had his bear returned to him that Jason even realized he wasn't holding it anymore._

_ "Aww.. Why'd you give it back to him, Cass?"_

_ She glared at him lightly before leaving the room._

_ "I'm going to tell Daddy!"_

_ With these words, Tim dashed from the room and towards Bruce's study._

_ "Damn it, I'm so dead!"_

_ As Jason raced after the boy, Dick called to him._

_ "Jason, watch your language!"_

_ "No way, Dickie Bird!"_

_ Rolling his eyes at his younger brothers' behaviors, Dick started to slowly follow them._

_ Then, the doorbell rang. _

_ Since he was right next to the door, and he knew Alfred was busy making dinner, he decided to answer it himself._

_ To say he was shocked to see Talia al Ghul and a toddler that looked oddly like a mini version of Bruce would be putting it lightly._

_ "Is my beloved here?" the woman asked formally, barely looking down at Dick as she spoke._

_ "Umm... Bruce is in his study... I'll... go get him... You.. can wait in the sitting room, I guess..."_

_ As Talia stiffly walked into the sitting room, the kid trailing behind her silently, Dick slowly walked towards the study, changing to a dash as soon as he left Talia's line of sight._

_ He soon burst into the room, interrupting some argument the man was having with Jason while he was holding Tim._

_ "Bruce, Talia is in the sitting room with some kid that looks like a mini you!"_

_ All three occupants of the study just stared at him for a moment before Bruce put Tim down and rushed out of the room, his sons following him._

_ Once everyone was seated in the sitting room, an awkward silence fell over the group. This went on for a few minutes before Tim ruined the moment by whispering to Dick rather loudly._

_ "Who's the creepy little kid?"_

_ Said 'creepy little kid' starting glaring at Tim immediately. Bruce, taking this as a jump board into an actual conversation._

_ "Alright, Talia. What are you doing here, and who is that child?"_

_ The woman looked straight at Bruce, not showing any signs of even noticing the children sitting around them, as she answered._

_ "My beloved, do you remember that night we spent together a few years ago?"_

_ Dick looked at Bruce oddly as the man suddenly froze, obviously in memory._

_ "What does some night you spent with Bruce have to do with what you're doing here with... some... kid... Ohh..." Jason started off annoyed, but suddenly shifted into understanding as he looked between the child and Talia and Bruce._

_ "Daddy, what is she talking about?" Tim asked quietly, though still loud enough so that the whole room could hear him._

_ "Timmy, I'll explain later."_

_ Dick, realizing what Talia meant much like Jason had, observed the child. He was wearing some black and white outfit that he guessed was supposed to be skintight, but was a few sizes too large and hung around him awkwardly._

_ His attention was drawn back to Bruce when the man spoke._

_ "I believe I remember the night you are speaking of... But... Are you implying what I think you are?..."_

_ "This boy's name is Damian, and he is our child."_

_ Tim stared at the woman with his mouth hanging slightly open. Bruce coughed in slight shock before responding._

_ "Well... What are you doing here?"_

_ Talia looked away slightly before answering._

_ "He has been... asking about you. I decided that he should meet you, and then... well, his training has been going well, but perhaps for a few years he could train with you..."_

_ "Training? He's two," Bruce suddenly said, slightly angry._

_ "He's an heir to Ra's al Ghul!" she nearly yelled in response._

_ "What exactly was this training for?"_

_ "To be an assassin, of course!"_

_ Talia seemed to realize this answer was not very positive when Bruce stood suddenly, an angry glare set heavily on his features._

_ "You don't tell me we had a child, and then you train him to be a freaking assassin?!"_

_ "... I assume you don't approve of that..."_

_ As the two adults glared at each other, only the children happened to notice Damian stand up and walk over to Bruce, staring up at the man in slight awe._

_ "Umm... Bruce..." Dick said awkwardly, pointing out the small child to the man._

_ "What is it- Oh."_

_ Damian was literally staring at Bruce, his dark blue eyes wide in wonder. The hero was obviously a bit uncomfortable under the stare._

_ "Father?"_

_ The child spoke softly, enough so that even Bruce could barely hear it. His voice, and the young hope that it held, made the Dark Knight's heart melt._

_ "Talia, I will take Damian and train him my way. You shouldn't count on getting him back, though."_

_ The woman stood, anger obvious on her features._

_ "But-"_

_ "I suggest you leave now."_

_ When she started moving towards Damian, Bruce nodded at Jason, who grinned wickedly before suddenly pushing on Talia's legs, moving towards the door._

_ "It is time for you to go, so says the all-powerful Bruce!" Jason declared happily as he pushed her out the door and slammed it shut, locking it immediately afterwards._

_ "I assume that I should prepare yet another room, then?" Alfred, who no one had noticed entering, said formally._

_ "That would be best," Bruce answered, still looking down at his small son._

_ Tim was still sitting on the couch uncomfortably before he got up and slowly walked to Bruce's side._

_ "Daddy? Does this mean Dami's joining the family?"_

_ Bruce ruffled Tim's hair as he answered._

_ "It looks like it, Timmy."_

_ Damian looked puzzled at the words, and frowned slightly._

_ "Father? What's 'daddy'?"_

_ After everyone stared at the 2-year-old for a moment, Bruce spoke again._

_ "... Damian, you have a lot to learn..."_

Soon, absolute despair took over Robin's being. There was nowhere they could be. Slade had managed to hide in a way that he could not track...

His younger siblings... The children that made any day just a little brighter... Was with Slade...

His head suddenly fell to his chest in defeat, and his shoulders began to shake as his body forced him to start weeping.

It was then, in his weakest state, that the tower alarm went off.

Robin looked up, tears still leaking from underneath his mask, and quickly checked where the emergency was. Maybe getting some fresh air would help his thinking...

"Okay team. There's a robbery downtown at Queen Industries, so we need to get going!"

As the team started moving out, Starfire worriedly walked up to Robin.

"Are you sure you will be able to do this?" She asked with concern in her voice.

"Totally. My mind could use something that doesn't have to do with the... current situation."

Meanwhile, at the Jump City firm of Queen Industries, a young teen in a skintight black and orange uniform jumped from the rooftop of the building, a container grasped in his hand, a scared expression obvious even through his mask.

"Very good, Apprentice," a cold voice said into a small radio in the boy's ear.

**... Once again, please don't kill me.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry that the chapter is short and not very good... The next chapter should be better...**

**I do not own TT or Batman.  
**

Tim really did not like not knowing what was going on. He always liked to be informed on every little detail that was supposed to happen, and was often nervous if events strayed off of the plans.

To say he was terrified of not understanding situations wouldn't even be much of a stretch. It was one of his larger weaknesses, and one that seemed to take great pleasure at rearing its ugly head at him as often as possible.

Like when Bruce wasn't back when he said he would be while out on patrol. Or when some rogue or random thug kidnapped them for ransoms.

Or when Dick had stormed out of the manor the year before, his suitcase rattling behind him, anger and hatred evident on his face. He hadn't said goodbye when he slammed the doors to the front entrance, despite the fact that Tim and Cass had been playing right next to it. Though Tim had expected his older brother to reenter in a few minutes, he hadn't.

Though Tim had waited for hours, he didn't come back. No one would tell him why, though Bruce had looked rather angry and practically ignored the children for a few days, during which Tim continued having that uncomfortable feeling of pure confusion.

That is, until they saw a report about the new Teen Titans team in Jump City and Jason managed to wrestle what happened out of Bruce.

This time, however, it was Jason that was keeping secrets. Though Tim could gather a few key notes about the situation, such as the fact that Jason was apparently going to be working for this Slade guy, who had been the one to capture them. When his older brother had been led out of the dark room they were currently residing and was soon reentering in an outfit the same color scheme as their capture's own uniform, this was only proved further.

However, Tim had literally no idea who Slade even was.

It was obvious that he was evil, otherwise he wouldn't have kidnapped them with those creepy robots. It was also quite clear that Dick was not particularly fond of the man, seemingly for more then the obvious reasons.

It was also clear that Jason somehow knew about Slade, despite the fact that none of the other children did. For a moment Tim felt jealousy that Dick had trusted Jason enough to tell the teen about his arch-nemesis, but had not said a word about him to Tim, even when the man had made an obvious threat against the children.

Then the boy looked at his older brother's broken expression, the pure pain in his heart showing in his eyes even with the mask hiding them from sight.

The slight jealousy changed into pure fury in a mere second. Slade wasn't going to get away with this... Whatever this was, he couldn't get away with it...

It wasn't long after the door opened again, causing Jason to look up as Slade spoke.

"Jason, it is time."

Though the teen had shivered slightly when the man said his name, he answered a moment later, his voice surprising Tim by how... weak it sounded.

"Can I talk to Tim for a minute?"

The voice that answered was obviously angry.

"If you must."

Jason soon bent down so he could look Tim in the eyes, taking his mask off quickly so it wouldn't distract the child.

"Timmy, you need to be brave for Cass and Dami while I'm gone. Can you do that?"

"But- Where are you going?"

"I... I don't know exactly, but I'll be back soon. I just need you to promise to be brave."

"Cass is older... Why are you asking me?"

"You know she is still struggling a little in talking. You're going to have to be strong."

Tim looked into his brother's pleading eyes before finally answering.

"I'll- I'll try."

The teen smiled meekly at the child before ruffling his hair playfully.

"That's the spirit, Timmy. I'll be back soon; I promise."

With that, his older brother was gone, and the room was once again engulfed in darkness.

The three children were in silence for so long that when Damian suddenly spoke it actually surprised Tim.

"Drake?"

Sighing over the young boy's continued use of last names, Tim soon answered.

"Yeah, Dami?"

"Where did Todd go?"

Tim swallowed to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall before speaking again.

"Damian... I... really wish I knew..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~D'arvit, Timmy is adorable~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robin was expecting the thief at Queen Industries to be some random guy, maybe Red X if they were even more unlucky today.

When the Titans arrived at the building and started chasing the small figure that was dashing away, Robin truly thought it was just a normal mission.

That is, until the Titans caught up with the thief and was able to see him clearly as he turned back slightly in order to see how far behind him the teen heroes were.

Time seemed to stand still when Robin saw Jason standing there, wearing a smaller version of the same uniform he himself had to wear as Slade's apprentice.

Which meant that his greatest fear was coming true; Slade was forcing his little brother to work for him. Seeing the pure terror on the young teen's face made the older boy suddenly freeze, not being capable of moving forward to stop his brother

The other Titans looked shocked as well upon realizing exactly who they were chasing down. They were distracted long enough for Jason to dash off, blending into the darkness almost as well as Batman himself.

The Titans soon turned towards Robin, worry clouding their eyes. This only increased when they saw tears lightly stream down the Boy Wonder's face.

"We need to get back to the tower," the teen suddenly spoke, his voice hard. "and get a list of any even semi-possible locations for where they may be, and search those locations until we find them."

It was as they were heading towards the tower, Robin realized the list of possibilities was long. As in, too long for them to get done without at least a little help.

_Surely Wally and Roy don't have anything better to do..._ the teen mused silently before taking out his communicator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I couldn't resist with Wally and Roy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason silently closed the door behind him as he reentered the hideout, shuffling towards the room where he knew Slade was waiting. Reaching the entrance, the teen slowly knocked, staring at his feet while doing so. He didn't even look up when the door creaked open, letting him access inside.

"You did well,"

"Whatever," the teen mumbled back as he set the cylinder on a nearby table.

Jason peeled the mask off his face, and looked up suddenly, an angry glare on his features.

"I got you your dumb laser. You said you would get the kids a better room,"

"As I will. If you follow me, I will show you the new room."

With those words, Slade moved towards the still open door, a very annoyed Jason following him.

When they arrived, Jason observed the new surroundings. It wasn't the best of rooms, but it had four small beds, which was a lot better then chains on a concrete floor.

It wasn't until he heard the click of the door locking that he realized Slade had left. The teen spun to look at the entrance, a hiss escaping his lips. If Slade was leaving him alone in the room, that meant the villain was going to get his younger siblings without him.

Jason huffed as he sat down on the nearest bed, anger and fear overcoming him.

He jumped up as soon as he heard the door open. Damian and Cass filed in silently, each shuffling to one of the beds.

Jason's blood boiled when he saw Slade enter, his hand resting on a terrified Tim's shoulder, leading him into the room.

He dashed forward immediately, pulling the child out of Slade's reach before looking over him to make sure there were no injuries. When he was certain that Tim was alright, he sent yet another hate-filled glare at the retreating form of Slade.

His focus was shifted when he heard the child next to him sniffling. Seeing his little brother with tears dripping down his face melted his heart enough for him to do something he rarely did; he held Tim to his chest in a firm hug.

"We'll be okay, Timmy. I don't know how, but we'll be okay..."

**Right... Tim just so happens to be adorable...**

**... Right...  
**

**Please review!  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Onward march!**

**I do not own TT or Batman.  
**

Damian couldn't sleep. He tried to close his eyes and just let exhaustion overcome him, but every attempt was disrupted by Tim tossing and turning a mere few feet away from him. For a few minutes the young child just lay in his bed, staring into the darkness as if searching for something.

Soon, however, he sat up and removed the thin blankets from his body, unable to simply sit still. Deciding that the other children would not be awoken if he moved around a little bit, Damian silently slipped out of the bed and started to pad around the room, not paying any attention to his surroundings.

That is, until he passed Tim's bed and was distracted by the older child muttering in his sleep. Damian stopped his pacing to listen, standing completely still as the words quietly left Tim's lips.

"I'm sorry, Mommy. I didn't mean to... I'm sorry..."

As Tim's voice started getting quieter, Damian moved closer in order to continue hearing him.

Only for Jason's voice to suddenly sound out directly behind him.

"He's been having nightmares a lot since Dick left and joined the Titans. I hear him in his sleep a lot, since my room is right next to his. I don't think he wants anyone to know. I haven't even told Bruce."

Damian turned at the voice, slightly surprised, for he had not heard the young teen walk up behind him. He quickly hid his shock as he looked up at Jason's oddly serious face.

Then again, maybe it wasn't that odd, all things considered.

"Can't sleep?" the teen asked, the shadow of a smile gracing his features.

Damian could tell even the small gesture was fake, though.

"Drake woke me up," he whispered, his gaze moving towards the ground.

"With his talking or the turning?"

"Turning. I didn't even notice the talking until I moved past him while pacing."

Even through the inky darkness, Damian noticed Jason cocking one eyebrow.

"Why were you pacing?"

Damian couldn't control the blush that suddenly appeared, but he prayed that Jason wouldn't notice it with the dark.

"Well- When Father is thinking, he often paces, and then he thinks of just the right thing to do. I thought that perhaps if I paced, I might be able to figure out how to get us out of this mess..."

There was silence for a moment, then suddenly Damian felt himself be picked up, and walked towards his bed.

"Todd-what- what are you doing?"

"Getting you back to bed."

"I already informed you that I can not sleep while Drake is making such a racket!"

"Well, you are obviously tired if you think you can be exactly like Bruce by imitating his actions, Dami."

"It was better then just lying here; that way, we'll never get out!"

Jason gently set Damian down on his bed, then bent down so he could look the child directly in the eyes.

"We are going to get out; either I'll figure out a way, or Dick will save us, or something. You don't have to loose sleep over it, okay?"

Damian answered the teen only by continuing to stare at him in slight disbelief.

"Glad we got that cleared up. Now, time for you to sleep!"

The child struggled slightly as Jason pushed him into the bed and pulled the thin covers over him, but his body was honestly too exhausted to truly fight back.

"Night night, Dami."

As Jason started walking away, Damian suddenly called out, a tint of worry in his voice.

"Are... Are you _sure_ Grayson is coming, Todd?"

Though his older brother was too far away to see in the inky darkness, his answer was easily heard.

"Yes, Damian. I am completely sure that he'll come for us."

The child turned away after hearing the words, letting his mind drift into a more dormant state.

As he started to fall asleep, though, he heard Jason quietly speak once again.

"I'm sure he won't abandon us this time..."

The tower of Titans East was by no means a calm place. Despite being a well functioning team, the teens that lived within still had some trouble involving completely getting along.

Which was why Bumblebee was chasing Mas y Menos angrily, the two boys giggling and chattering in Spanish as the clung to communicator.

"You rugrats give that back! What if I Robin calls me with an important Titans announcement or something?"

The two ignored her, running into the hallways of the tower, their estranged leader following behind them.

Speedy did his best to ignore them as he polished his new bow. It wasn't until the noise faded off in the distance that he was able to focus on his task.

Only to nearly drop the bow when his communicator started buzzing next to him.

The teen glared at the object before sighing loudly, placing his bow next to him and flipping the communicator open.

"Speedy here."

The archer was not really surprised to see it was Robin that had called him. The slightly younger teen called every once and a while to talk. It was the rarest of occasions.

What did surprise him, though, was that the strong leader looked so... scared. Hopeless.

"What's up?" he asked before Robin even got a chance to speak.

"Speedy... I need to ask a favor of you."

"What?"

"Do you remember my younger siblings?"

Roy thought back to the one time he actually got to visit Dick at Wayne Manor, back when they were both sidekicks. Ollie had needed to talk to Bruce, and Roy was honestly rather surprised to see that there were children other then the Boy Wonder living with the Dark Knight.

After a small incident with Damian and the child's butter knife, it was clear he would not be forgetting the Wayne kids anytime soon.

"... Yes."

"Well... They've been kidnapped, and I need your help finding them."

Speedy nearly jumped in surprise.

"Wait.. What? What happened?"

Robin ran his hand through his hair nervously before answering.

"Batman had to work with the league, and apparently I was the only one available to take care of them. But... Slade found out about them."

Roy's eyes widen behind his mask before he swore quietly.

"Right. I'll be right there. Do you want the rest of the team to come also?"

"No. That could draw too much attention..."

"Right. See you soon."

The teen closed the communicator quickly before grabbing his discarded bow. As he started heading towards garage to reach the motorcycle Green Arrow had given him for his birthday, Bumblebee suddenly walked back into the main room, a smug grin on her features as she held her retrieved communicator. This changed to a look of annoyance when she saw the archer heading to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Robin asked me for his help on an important mission. I sort of need to get there now, though..."

The girl looked at him, shocked.

"Why did he ask you? I'm the leader!"

"He's known me longer. Bye!"

Speedy then dashed out of the room, and the roar of his motorcycle was soon heard as he left the tower.

Wally was convinced that Jinx would enjoy a night in Paris.

He was not expecting her to be quite as happy as she was, though.

He really was not ready to be dragged into nearly every store they came across, and be forced to judge every outfit the girl tried on, only to end up leaving each store empty-handed because each item was either too expensive or just 'wasn't right'.

To say he was relived when Jinx saw a restaurant that looked good would be a bit of an understatement.

It was as they were browsing through the menu that the communicator he always kept on him started vibrating.

Though Jinx looked rather annoyed at the interruption, he answered it, knowing it was quite possibly something important.

"Kid Flash here, but if this isn't an absolute emergency I'm going to have to stop this conversation now."

When the speedster saw his best friend's face, though, he doubted this was going to be anything minor.

"KF, I really need your help."

"What happened, dude?"

"You know my siblings?"

Though Jinx rose a confused eyebrow upon hearing that Robin had siblings, Wally did not hesitate in answering.

"Even without hanging out all the time when we were younger, I don't think it would be possible to forget those rascals. Why?"

"They're... Well... They've been kidnapped."

"I'll be right there."

The young hero immediately stood up after cutting the message, only to be stopped by the voice of his girlfriend.

"So, you're just going to leave, then?"

Turning towards the girl, Wally opened his mouth to speak as his hand flew behind his head to rub it awkwardly.

"Don't start. I get why, Wally. I was just messing with you. Go help Robin find his... siblings? Robin has siblings?"

"Yeah... three brothers and one sister..."

Jinx looked into space oddly as the thought sunk in.

"... You know, just go."

Wally sped off, leaving the girl alone at the table.

"Wait a second... Now I'm stuck in freaking _France!_"

**Not particularly fond of this chapter... Except for the part with Jay and Dami...  
**

**I actually like that part...  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Short chapter, yes, but school starts tomorrow and I wanted to update.**

**I do not own TT or Batman.  
**

Jason was awoken the next morning by light evading his eyelids that had been firmly shut, attempting to block out the world. At first, he tried to ignore what he assumed was sunlight, thinking that Alfred was getting him up and he could stay in bed for another thirty minutes before Bruce came in and forced him out of bed.

He was reminded of the current situations when voices started to penetrate his near slumber state.

"Let go of me, you arrogant fool!" That was obviously Damian, with his little voice almost always yelling in anger.

"Please let go of me..." There was Cass's soft voice, rarely ever heard, and always short sentences when it was.

"Let go of me... Jay!"

Jason popped up immediately when his name was called, realizing that the younger children were truly in trouble.

Complete remembrance overcame him when he saw Slade holding Damian, Cass, and Tim's arms, dragging them towards the door.

"Get your hands off of them!" the young teen screamed as he jumped out of bed, leaving the thin blankets floating in the air, as he raced towards the villain.

"I was wondering when you would wake up," Slade says, seemingly ignoring the actual words spoken by the boy.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jason asked, hatred lacing every word.

"Taking them to the training room. I was planning on awakening you later to join them, since you worked so hard last night."

"I'll be perfectly fine to come now, if you don't mind," he snarled out.

After Jason snatched his younger siblings away from Slade, the man walked onward, his hands folded formally behind his back. The young teen stomped after him, his siblings following slowly.

When Slade opened another door, it was to what seemed like a control room. It overlooked a much larger room that housed a large, difficult looking obstacle course. Looking through it, Jason saw some parts that were normal, such as the monkey bars and tires, but the Slade bots blocking the path in multiple areas seemed a bit much.

"Jason, if you are really ready to train, you can go first," Slade said as he closed the door to the control room and motioned to a small elevator at the back of the room.

Though he glared at the villain as he did so, Jason walked into the elevator, which dropped him off at the beginning of the obstacle course. As soon as he stepped into the room, a countdown started from the number five in a slightly robotic voice.

"Five, four, three, two, one. Begin."

Jason raced forward, and completed each challenge with ease. When he reached the hoard of Slade bots, he attacked immediately, kicking and hitting them all without caring if the areas where he struck would be fatal on a human; it wasn't like they were as such, and he honestly just wanted to get this over with.

It was not long before he was at the end, which happened to exit exactly where he started, the door to the elevator slowly opening. Jason walked in quickly, wishing to return to the room where a total sicko was alone with his kid brothers and sister.

When he reentered the room, Slade started speaking.

"Decent job. It took you two minutes. Obviously it requires more practice, but good nonetheless. Cassandra?"

Cass nearly jumped when her name was spoken, but she quickly shuffled into the elevator and let the doors close behind her. Jason swiftly moved towards the window in order to watch her, worry evident on his features as the countdown started.

When she got into the course itself, though, she realized it was ridiculous for him to truly worry about Cass in this case. She moved through each challenge easier then even Jason had, her advanced training shining through.

In his fear, he had seemed to have forgotten she nearly always outperformed him during practice back in Gotham as well.

When she reached the Slade bots, she took each down with nearly elegant kick, dodges, and punches. It seemed as if no time had passed when she returned to the control room.

"A minute and a half. Very impressive, Miss Cain."

Cass glared lightly at Slade as she walked to Jason's side, ignoring the compliment.

Before Slade even got a chance to saw who was supposed to go next, Damian walked towards the elevator. If they were not in the current situation, Jason probably would have rolled his eyes at the small child's never ending need to prove himself to be the best.

When he returned a minute later, a smug smirk gracing his tiny features, it was obvious that he was sure he had done just that.

"A single minute... Amazing, though expected from someone trained in the League of Shadows. Timothy?"

Jason bit his lip as the obviously terrified Tim walked into the elevator. When the child started, he looked on nervously.

It was obvious that Tim was trying. He hopped through the first few tires flawlessly before he started to trip on them. Each task went about the same way, with Tim barely making through them.

That is, until he reached the Slade bots.

His fist went for where one of the robots were when he saw them, but it swerved before he reached it, causing the boy to fall from his own momentum. When he tried to get back up, the machines surrounded him, knocking him back over with each attempt, attacking the child fiercer with each second that passed.

"Why aren't you turning the damn things off yet?" Jason growled to Slade, trying to ignore Tim's cries of pain in the background.

"The boy needs to learn to defend himself," the man answered, his voice cold.

"Well, he's not going to be able to if he's beaten to a pulp! Turn them off!"

Slade slowly pushed a button on his wrist, and the robots shut down, collapsing around Tim's limp body.

"Why isn't Drake getting up?" Damian asked as he went on tip-toes to see through the window.

Jason, seeing that Tim couldn't move, stomped towards the elevator, going down himself. When he entered the larger room, he ran past the actual obstacles and towards his younger brother.

To say the blood coating the child's body and the ground around him made Jason angry would be the understatement of the century. When he went back up to the control room, pure hatred radiated from his being, and quickly moved to the door, Damian following curiously and Cass following sadly. He kicked the door closed as he exited and headed towards their room.

When they finally made it to Tim's bed, he gently placed the boy's injured body on the mattress, doing his best to make the rough bedding even slightly comfortable.

"I tried, Jay," Tim suddenly said, his voice weak. "I really did try."

"I know you did, Timmy. I know."

**I feel bad for being mean to Timmy...**

**We shall see what's up with the Titans (along with Wally and Roy!) next time!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Forward!**

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.  
**

It was nearly dark when Speedy finally pulled into the garage of Titans Tower. After parking his bike next to Robin's own, he nearly threw his helmet onto the seat before dashing up the staircase into the main room of the tower.

Upon entering, the very first thing that the archer saw was Wally racing towards him.

"Speedy! You finally got here! Robin said you'd be coming, but I was starting to doubt that since it took you so long, but you're finally here!"

Roy placed a hand on the speedster's shoulder, stopping the near vibrating the other teen was experiencing while talking.

"KF, slow down! It's nice to see you also, but we have a serious problem here. Where is everyone?"

Wally looked embarrassed as he answered.

"Oh... right. Rob's waiting for us over by the computer with all the Titans."

He leaned in closer to his friend, whispering the next words.

"Just a warning, he's not taking this very lightly. You know how he occasionally can get a bit obsessive?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, remember that, but multiply it by about a hundred. That's how much into this he is."

Roy couldn't stop himself from staring at the speedster in disbelief.

"Dude, these are his younger siblings that are missing! You know them better then I do; you should be nearly as worried as Robin!"

The glare that was suddenly sent at him with Wally's bright green eyes shocked him slightly.

"Just because I am worried by my best friend not acting like his normal self doesn't mean I don't understand _why_ he's not. Really, Speedy, what kind of friend do you think I am?"

The two young heroes just stood there for a moment before Robin's voice suddenly rang out through the room.

"Kid Flash, Speedy, get over here now!"

Wally turned towards there friend with a serious expression, his right hand raised in a salute.

"Will do, Rob."

The speedster suddenly grabbed Roy, and ran over to the group before putting the archer down. Though he felt the need to yell at Wally for not warning him before just grabbing him, the teen soon was distracted by Robin once again speaking, his voice hard.

"You will all be split into pairs, and be given a list of areas to search. I will be leading each pair from hear, so report to me over the communicators after each location."

The leader suddenly stood and turned away from the computer, facing the team.

"Raven and Cyborg, you'll take the East wing of the city. Beast Boy and Kid Flash, you take the North wing. Starfire and Speedy, you'll be searching both the West and South wings. Make sure you all look everywhere."

Robin looked over the small crowd, watching each hero nod solemnly.

"Okay, team, move out!"

"Damian, grab that extra sheet in the corner," Jason ordered while he observed Tim's unconscious body. He had waited for the child to drift off before starting to do a medical check on him.

It honestly hadn't taken very long.

As the small child padded over with the sheet in tow, Jason looked over all the bruises, cuts, and gashes that covered Tim's body. The teen didn't even look down at Damian as he grabbed the sheet, ripping it into strips. As he started wrapping the strips around the worst injuries, Damian looked around Jason to see their injured brother.

"Is Drake going to be alright?"

Jason moved a strand of hair from Tim's face as he answered the child in a soft voice.

"I think so, Dami."

As Damian tried to climbed on the bed in order to see Tim better, Cass gently placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back to behind their teen brother.

The calmness of the room was suddenly interrupted when the door opened, revealing an obviously angry Slade on the other side.

"Jason, you have a mission."

Before he followed the exiting man, Jason quickly turned towards the two conscious children, whispering urgently.

"If he tries to hurt either of you or Tim, fight, and don't hold back. Also, keep an eye on Timmy's vitals. Okay?"

When both nodded, Jason dashed after Slade, leaving the children alone again.

As soon as the door shut closed, Damian crawled up onto the end of Tim's bed.

"Cain, if you require rest you can do so. I will watch over Drake."

When Cass looked at him doubtfully, Damian slid a butter knife out of his pocket.

"Trust me, nothing will happen while I'm on watch," the child stated darkly.

The girl looked at him oddly for a moment before speaking quietly.

"Did you have that the whole time?"

"... Yes."

"Didn't Dad tell you to not bring a knife?"

"... I do believe Father did mention something around those lines."

Cass shook her head in disbelief, but she was soon slipping into bed, and was asleep in minutes.

As his sister dozed off, Damian looked down at his unconscious brother.

"Why must you be so weak, Drake? Do you realize how much fear you cause our siblings? How Father is always worried about you? If you could just be stronger, we wouldn't even be in this mess..."

The child glanced at Cass to make sure she was still asleep before gently laying his head on top of Tim's legs.

"Why- why do you have to make _me _scared?"

Though he tried to stay awake, his small body was on the edge of exhaustion, and he soon drifted off, still on top of Tim.

Slade led Jason to the same room where he had been given his assignment the night before. Upon entering, Jason leaned against the wall.

"So, what do you want?"

Slade walked over to a table in the corner of the room silently, and answered the boy's question as he picked something out Jason's view.

"The Titans, along with some other teen heroes, are searching the city currently. I need you to... distract them."

The young teen couldn't help but roll his eyes as he stuck the mask on and stood up straight.

"Right, whatever. What area do you want me to go?"

The criminal turned back towards Jason as he spoke, revealing what he was holding to be a sleek silver gun.

"The South should be a good place to start. Take this with you."

Jason's mouth fell open as he stared at the weapon.

"Wh-what do you mean, take that with me? I can't use a freaking gun!"

The gun was tossed into his hands, which nearly dropped the object in shock.

"You don't even necessarily have to use it; this time. Just seeing you with it should throw the Titans off for now."

Jason wanted to refuse. He truly did. But as he opened his mouth to do exactly that, thoughts of the children he would be leaving alone with the psychopath flooded his mind.

Jason sighed, before speaking, defeated.

"Fine."

The teen then stomped out, slamming the door behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.**

Jason heard the voices of Starfire and Speedy from the building over, giving him plenty of time to find a wall to hide behind as he waited for the orders from Slade to confront the two older teens. As he waited, he looked around the corner slightly, just enough to see the Starfire's hand, which happened to be holding her communicator.

"Robin, there is no sign of the children here. Should we move on?"

Jason's breath became shallow when he heard his older brother's voice answer the alien princess.

"Yeah. Remember to call me back when after searching that location. Robin out."

He saw Starfire close the communicator, then her hand moved away from his limited line of vision. The annoyed voice of Speedy rang out moments later.

"Okay, why does he keep reminding us to check in with him? He's only told us about fifteen times already..."

"He's worried, Speedy. You know that."

A sigh was heard, then footsteps. As the teens started to move away, Jason heard Slade's voice through his ear piece.

"Now, Jason," Slade demanded firmly.

Jason gulped before stepping out of the shadows and speaking, sounding much more confident then how he felt.

Being completely honest, he didn't feel confident at all.

"Well, well, well, lookie here. Robin's perfect little princess and the ex-_sidekick_ of a complete idiot."

Starfire and Speedy turned swiftly after hearing his voice, shocked to see the boy. The archer recovered himself quickly, though, and was soon slowly walking towards Jason, talking all the way.

Probably thought that he could distract him. Amateur.

"I'm guessing Bats was the one that told you Green Arrow is an idiot..."

Jason snorted, keeping a close eye on the bow that was slowly being risen as he spoke.

"I noticed it myself when you two visited awhile back."

The archer's next words were spoken through gritted teeth, obviously not particularly fond of the event Jason was referring to.

"You... remember that."

"How could I forget, Harper? That screech you gave after Damian avenged his cat echoed through the whole manor."

Jason had to keep himself from smirking when Roy lowered his bow, getting distracted in the conversation about the … unpleasant memory.

"He didn't even have to 'avenge' the dumb cat, I didn't hit it! The arrow landed a few feet from it, and the brat overreacted,"

Jason didn't realize that Speedy and Starfire might be using the exact same strategy as he had been attempting as his own when guard went down in his anger.

"He's not a brat! He was a two-year-old who thought his pet was in danger, and reacted in a way he had been told was right since near birth!"

"He stabbed me with a butter knife!"

Jason huffed angrily as he answered, not noticing a look Starfire and Speedy shared.

"You nearly shot his cat!"

"Starfire, now!"

It took Jason the entirety of a second to realize what they had been doing. This short amount of time was almost enough for Starfire to fly forward and grab him, and only his reflexes gained through Bat training helped him evade capture.

"Ya almost got me there," he said, breathing heavily, yet still managing to somehow keep up the cocky tone.

"Jason, let us help you," Starfire pleaded, her green eyes wide of full of sadness.

The young teen opened his mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by Slade speaking again.

"Take out the gun."

He froze upon hearing the words.

"... Is that a yes?" Roy asked, looking at the younger boy oddly.

"Now, Jason!"

The teen slipped his hand into his pocket where the weapon was stored before taking a deep breath, pulling it out and pointing it directly at Starfire and Speedy on the exhale.

"I'll-I'll take that as a no..."

The two teens looked at him horrified as he held the gun with shaking hands.

"Just... go away..."

When they didn't move, Slade spoke again, filling the boy with even more terror.

"You'll have to fire a warning shot to get them to give up,"

"Wha- No!" he yelled out, ignoring the confused expressions on the two older teens as he appeared to be arguing with himself.

"That wasn't an optional order, Jason."

"B-but you said I wouldn't have to fire this dumb thing!"

"That situation has obviously changed. Shoot."

Jason narrowed his eyes underneath the mask before dropping the weapon.

"No."

He could hear the man spluttering in shock and anger.

"How dare you... You insolent child!"

Jason took a step towards the teen heroes, ignoring Slade, until the villain spoke again.

"You'll regret this, you little brat!"

Jason froze in horror, realizing what Slade could do when he was alone with his kid siblings, before dashing off towards the hide-out, determined to stop him.

He was moving a bit too quickly to notice Speedy fire a tracker onto his leg as he ran.

When the young teen disappeared from sight, Starfire pulled out the communicator again, calling Robin.

"Let me guess, another dead end?" Robin asked, obvious fatigue kicking in along with the pure desperation.

"Not... exactly," Roy said from behind Starfire.

"What?" the leader perked up as soon as the other teen spoke.

"Well, Slade sent Jason..."

"And?"

"Well, at first he seemed to be pretending to be a confident apprentice..."

"Yeah?"

"Then... He took out a gun..."

Robin's breath hitched upon hearing the words.

"Wha- Why?"

"It seemed Slade ordered him to, because he seemed to be fighting the creep about shooting it a second later, then dropped the gun and suddenly ran off."

Robin seemed to deflate as he heard the ending.

"Well, I guess you keep looking, then."

Roy could not control the smirk that took over his features as he continued.

"I guess that would be the case, if I hadn't fired a tracker onto him as he left."

The leader just stared at him for a moment, his features brightening slowly as it sunk in.

"Okay, you two wait there, I'll contact the others and meet you. From there, we can head out to where the trackers leads us. Good work, guys."

Robin cut the transmission, leaving Starfire and Speedy alone again.

"Why do you think Jason ran off?" the alien suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Somehow, I don't think it's a good thing."

**Well, not my best chapter, but it works... sort of. It was originally going to be longer, but I decided that the other parts will go on the next chapter so I can get this out tonight.**

**Please review!  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**Look at the amazing cover, made by Juniper Night. Look at its brilliance! Admire it!**

**I do not own Batman or Teen Titans.**

Damian awoke when he was violently pushed to the ground, falling a good five feet away from the bed he had previously inhabited. Still feeling disoriented, the child struggled to open his eyes, only to see Slade holding Tim far above the ground by the scruff of the older boy's shirt.

While this was, unfortunately, not completely surprising, one detail about the current situation was rather unexpected was the fact that Tim was actually attempting to fight back.

In every other instance during the past few days, Tim had accepting anything that came his way. This time, however, the child threw countless punches and kicks.

While few meet their target, and the minuscule amount that did caused no damage, it was still a bit shocking to see the pure anger on Tim's face.

"Put.. me... down... you big jerk!"

Slade ignored the child's plight, and silently started walking towards the door.

Damian tried to move himself forward, but was soon distracted by Cass. The girl, who he had not even known was awake, jumped out of her bed and directly next to the fallen knife. In one fluid movement, she scooped the makeshift weapon up, and flung it at their captor.

It would have been more impressive if what ended up hitting the villain was just the butt of the knife, and not the actual blade. However, it was enough to cause Slade to turn around, turning his attention to the obviously furious girl.

"Put Tim down," she said, her voice strong.

"You believe I would listen to a child who is not only still going through training, but is in the clear disadvantage?"

As Cass's confidence seemed to dissipate, one of Tim's kicks managed to hit Slade's mask. As the object flew into the air and fell to the ground below, the villain dropped the child in shock.

The children stared at the fallen mask for a few seconds before turning towards Slade. They may have paid more attention to the fact he seemed like an actually rather old man (who had an _eye patch_) if they were not so focused with the pure hatred that radiated from Slade's one eye.

Tim soon scrambled onto his feet, and got into a fighting position. However, this stance was dropped as the villain turned towards the boy, slowly walking towards him. Tim tried to back away, but his legs seemed to disobey his intent, barely moving at all as he was struck by terror.

"You... absolutely worthless, talentless little brat!"

Tim whimpered in fear, which only triggered more anger in the man. This fury caused his hand to raise, then come down on the poor child.

The hit caused Tim to hit the ground, hard. The action put a silence over the room, like a heavy, suffocating blanket.

It wasn't until there was a noise at the doorway that anyone even realized Jason had seen the whole thing.

"You- you monster!" the teen screamed out, making a move towards the younger boy. Unfortunately, Slade moved quickly, grabbing Tim with one hand and pulling a gun out of a holster with the other.

Jason froze when he saw Slade place the barrel of the gun underneath Tim's chin, holding the boy against him with one arm. The weapon was much larger then the one that Jason had been given, and that, along with Slade's large body, seemed to dwarf the small child.

"So, you decided to return despite disobeying me to protect the children. You are so much like your stupidly heroic brother."

Jason, staring at the large gun, spoke.

"It runs in the family, I guess."

The man chuckled, the sound echoing through the silence.

"Your fake composure isn't going to fool me, Jason. I can tell you're terrified."

The teen glared at the unmasked villain.

"Just let him go. Do whatever you want to me, just don't hurt them."

Jason knew his voice was absolutely pleading and obviously desperate. He was just far past the state of caring.

The smirk that grew on Slade's face was unnerving, but he was able to ignore it as the man released Tim, allowing the boy to scamper behind Jason.

"Very well. You'll have to go through more training, months worth really, before you will be allowed back outside. I'll have to get you used to guns-"

As Slade spoke, moving closer to the doorway with each word, Damian suddenly jumped forward, aiming a punch for the mercenary's exposed head. What he didn't expect for Slade to grab his small fist midair, twisting it in a direction it was clearly not supposed to, proven by the loud crack that sounded out, then drop his body onto the ground, not even breaking his stride.

"We should start now-" Slade stopped speaking as he noticed a blinking red object on Jason's back. Plucking it off the fabric, he scowled as he realized the purpose, crushing it between his fingers.

"You let them get a tracker on you," he growled out, causing Jason's eyes to widen in surprise.

"I-I didn't know they did that..."

"Of course you didn't... Every Titan at Robin's disposal will be here in minutes, and this base is not ready to stop an onslaught of teen heroes yet..."

The man stopped speaking, looking at Jason.

"Well, the only way to truly stop them then is to send you to stop them."

"W-What?" Jason squeaked out.

"They won't fight you with their full capabilities, so it wouldn't be challenging for you to overpower them."

"B-But..."

Slade shoved the heavy gun into Jason's hands.

"You _will_ use it this time."

The teen managed to force out a reply.

"... Fine."

The sound of footsteps on the roof resonated on the roof. Slade pushed Jason out of the room, locking the door behind them.

"This is your time, boy."

Gulping, Jason ran towards the exit, horrified of what he would have to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Na na na na na na... BATMAN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the Titans, plus Kid Flash and Speedy, neared the location the signal was coming from, said signal suddenly died. Roy swore under his breath before speaking to the group.

"Slade must have found the tracker. He knows we're coming."

Robin nodded, taking in the unfortunate information.

"Right. We may not have surprise, then, but we can still hit him hard. The signal was comign from that building at the end of the street; let's move in."

The young heroes followed their leader as he jumped onto the next rooftop, heading towards their target.

They soon arrived, and were about to find an entrance into the building when a young voice sounded out behind them.

"I knew you wouldn't give up on us, Rob."

Robin turned quickly towards the voice of his brother, hope evident on his face.

This hope from his face instantly as he looked down the barrel of a gun, pointed directly at him, being held by his little brother.

He had severely hoped that Roy and Star had been mistaken when they said Jason had a gun. He had hoped that they had some detail wrong, that not everything was what it seemed.

Obviously not the case.

"Jay..." he managed to choke out, tears threatening to pour in cascades as he saw the boy hold the weapon, his hands shaking.

The rest of the team seemed frozen as they stared at the two brothers. That is, until Wally realized the only way they were going to end this was if they left Robin and Jason and moved into the building itself.

It didn't take long for the speedster to grab each person, running them down to the entrance silently. Once they were out of the eye and earshot of their leader and his brother, Kid Flash spoke.

"Those two look a little preoccupied, so we have to be the ones that go looking for the kids."

Everyone nodded in agreement before turning towards the door. Starfire blasted the lock, allowing them access, before they quietly slinked in.

On the roof, the two bats had not noticed the others leave, they were so distracted by each other.

"What is he doing to you, Jay?" Robin asked pleadingly, worry evident even with his mask.

"It- It isn't anything he's doing to me, Dick. He... he's been threatening the kids, and-and he slapped Tim, and I think he broke Damian's hand and-and..."

Dick took a step forward, a hand outstretched, before being stopped by Jason raising the gun again.

"Don't come any closer, Dick. I-I have orders to fight you... I don't wan to, though..."

"Pathetic," Slade's voice rang throughout the evening air, chilling both boys. They turned towards the source of the noise, seeing the man standing on the edge of the roof, wearing what had to have been a new mask.

"Leave him alone!" Dick roared out, hatred overcoming his features.

"Now, why would I do that? You would have his skills wasted on 'heroics', a worthless battle that can never truly be won, while I-"

"am manipulating him into working for you by threatening those he cares about. You never change, Slade."

The man's voice managed to become even darker as he spoke.

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean I can't put my past behind me. Such as past apprentices. Jason... shoot him."

**... Don't kill me.**

**On a much lighter note, I have something to ask of my absolutely amazing readers. My little sister's birthday is coming up, and she really likes this story. I think it's because there is a mini Damian, which really just sounds awesome anytime it is said, but that is besides the point. I'm planning on compiling a hard copy of the entire story for her so she can read the whole thing without having to be by a computer.  
Unfortunately, there is a whole lot of empty space so far.  
So I must ask you guys, my brilliant readers, to see if any of you could possibly draw a fanart for this story that could be added in this little compilation I'm making for my sister. I'll write a one-shot of choice for whoever helps out (requests would be added to an already existing list, but they would get done... eventually.). PM me if you need details.  
**

**Thanks for reading, and please review!  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.**

The Titans, along with Speedy and Kid Flash, slunk through Slade's base silently. As they turned down the twisting corridors, there was no signs of the children.

That is, until they suddenly heard yelling coming from the end of one of the hallways.

"Let us out! Let us out!"

The teens were rather surprised that the voice was that of the introverted Tim, but they did not look a gift horse in the mouth. They ran towards the noise, soon coming across the door where the ruckus was coming from. As they approached, Cyborg yelled to the occupants.

"Timmy! Are you in there?"

"Cyborg? Is that you?" the young voice called back.

"Yeah, kid. The whole team is here, as well as Kid Flash and Speedy. Do you remember them?"

"Robin hung out with Kid Flash all the time... And Speedy came over once and got stabbed by Damian..."

"Why is that all you kids remember about me?!" the archer asked, annoyed. This resulted in Cyborg glaring at him, annoyed, before talking to the child again.

"Are you all alright in there?"

"Cass and I are fine, but I think Slade broke Dami's hand... I had to help him up just to get him onto one of the beds instead of the floor..."

The half-robot, as well as the other teens, felt anger boil inside them as they heard that the smallest child had been injured. Cyborg soon composed himself, though, and spoke again.

"Okay, stand away from the door. We're going to try to break through, okay?"

"Alright!"

The next few minutes was spent with Starfire trying to use her star bolts to get the door down, but to no avail. Eventually, Beast Boy put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her attacks. Once she moved away, Beast Boy suddenly turned into a tiger, and crashed through the door, breaking it from its hinges.

The three children inside stared at the young heroes that burst into the room. Suddenly, Damian of all people smiled brightly. He jumped off the bed, obviously being careful with what must have been the injured hand, and moved towards Beast Boy, who was still a tiger, and climbed onto his back.

"We have been rescued by the mighty tiger! Siblings, we must now go onward to assist in our older brothers' current plight!"

Not sure exactly what was going on, Beast Boy padded out of the room, still a tiger and still carrying Damian on his back. Tim and Cass started to follow, but the boy stopped to scoop up Damian's knife, running to hand it to the child.

"Here's your knife, Dami. In case you get a chance to cause that jerk pain."

The small child nodded from his perch, though Roy found himself glaring at the weapon. Damian soon noticed this, before hissing his words at the archer.

"I don't forget how you almost killed Blade a few years ago, Harper."

"I wasn't even close to hitting your dumb cat!"

It wasn't until he didn't hear a response that Roy even realized the other teens, along with the kids, had left the room. He dashed out to follow them as they headed towards the roof.

Time seemed to stand still as Slade uttered his order. Robin's eyes widened as he looked at his younger brother, only to see the boy shaking in fear.

Which only made the teen furious.

However, that fury was soon swept away as he saw Jason's finger enter the trigger mechanism.

"Jason, don't!"

"Obey your master, child."

Looking at his brother's eyes, he saw something inside the boy snap. The fear and sadness that had occupied his expression only moments ago was suddenly overcome by anger and pure hatred.

It was then that Dick felt fear. Not for himself, but for what the young teen might do.

"You are not my master!" Jason suddenly roared, turning the weapon towards Slade.

"You are have no right to try to control my life! You are just some twisted sicko who kidnaps innocent kids, and abuse them. There is no way in hell I'm going to take your orders!"

The mercenary took a small step back as the boy walked towards him.

"Put that weapon down, boy!"

"No!"

Robin took a step towards his brother.

"Jason, stop!"

"No, Dick!" he suddenly yelled out. "If I don't stop him now, he'll just hurt others like he hurt us! I can't let him do this to anyone else! I _won't_ let him do this to anyone else!"

Robin just stared in horror as Jason's finger started to pull back the trigger-

-only to be stopped midway by the surprise of seeing Damian come onto the roof, riding Beast Boy, who was a tiger, with a butter knife lifted upwards in his non-injured hand.

Beast Boy jumped onto Slade, knocking the man down. The other Titans and children were on the roof moments later.

"Slade, I would say you have been beaten," Starfire proclaimed seriously.

As Speedy took out some handcuffs and moved towards the criminal, Robin walked over to Jason, who, though no one seemed to notice, still had the gun raised to where Slade had been standing a moment before, tears streaming down his face in cascades. Dick slowly lowered the hands holding the weapon, pulling his brother into a hug.

"It'll be okay, Jaybird. It'll all be okay..."

"I-I'm so sorry..." the young teen whispered back, barely being able to talk.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Jay. You did what you thought you had to. We just have to be glad you were stopped before you did something you'd regret..."

"The-the part I'm sorry about is that... I'm not sure I would regret it..."

Dick pulled out of the embrace, studying him worriedly, only to be distracted by the events going on over by Slade.

More specifically, Damian getting off of Beast Boy, walking calmly over to Slade, and plunging his butter knife into the man's left leg.

"Auuugh! You little brat!"

"That was for my family, Wilson."

Dick suddenly froze, looking at the child oddly.

"... What did you just call Slade?"

"Due to an... incident during this mess, I was able to see this man without his mask. I recognized him as Slade Wilson, a high-ranking solider that my mother had me study about only a month before I moved to Gotham."

"Wilson... as in... that guy who bought..."

Looking down at the building, Robin groaned.

"... the gym we are standing on."

As the this discussion went on, no one noticed Slade managing to slip off of the roof, and disappear into the night.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Tim looked back at where they had left the man, only to notice he wasn't there.

"Slade got away!"

Robin turned towards the spot immediately. When he saw the boy was indeed correct, he felt an urge to scour the city for the criminal until he was found.

But, hearing Jason still sniffling slightly reminded him that he had some kids that needed him.

"Let's just forget about Slade and head back to the Tower. We have nearly two days of fun to make up for."

**I think there is only one chapter left. However, after that there shall be a one-shot collection that takes place in the same universe. **

**Please review!  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**I do not own Teen Titans or Batman.**

Robin set the group up with a movie almost immediately after returning to the tower. Somehow he felt pain when, instead of fighting against watching the old Disney movie, Jason nearly begged him not to leave when he stood up as the opening scene started.

The tear tracks were still completely visible on the boy's face...

The older teen did not want to leave his younger brother, or any of his siblings, for even a minute, but he had to call Alfred. That was the only way to contact Bruce.

And Bruce was needed to help his obviously hurting little siblings.

Which was why he swiftly walked into his room, opening up the laptop he kept in his closet immediately after entering. He soon set up a video call with the Batcave, waiting for the British man to answer.

It was not a very long wait. Soon, Alfred's worried face filled his screen.

"Master Richard, what is the reasons behind this message? Was there any accident involving the children?"

Dick took a deep breath before answering, guilt lacing every syllable he uttered.

"... Yeah. It's already been dealt with, but... I think they need Bruce. And I don't think they can wait until the end of the week..."

"Of course... I'll get him up now so you can talk to him."

"It was only a few minutes before the slightly angry and very worried face of Batman was seen.

"What. Happened?" the Dark Knight nearly growled out.

"Slade... Somehow, he already knew about them, and our secret identities... And... Found out they were with us..."

Dick stopped to compose himself before speaking again, his gaze anywhere but at Bruce.

"He only had them for a couple of days, but... He forced Jason to work for him, like he did with me, threatening the kids if he didn't obey... It's been hard to get Jay to just stop crying... And he injured Tim... a lot... He's been limping ever since we got them out, but I haven't had time to check to see if there is anything seriously wrong... I know Cass doesn't talk that much, but she hasn't spoken a word since... I haven't been able to convince Damian that they're safe now..."

Looking up at Bruce, he saw only horror o his adopted-father's face.

"I'll be there in an hour."

Dick nearly jumped at this statement.

"How? You're in space!"

"I'm only at the Watchtower right now, I can back on Earth in minutes."

The teen would have argued against the possibility of this claim, but decided against it; this was Batman.

"Fine... See you then, I guess..."

The call was then cut off, allowing Dick to rejoin his team and siblings.

When he entered, though, he was annoyed, but not entirely shocked, to see Roy sitting next to Starfire, an arm over the area of the couch where she sat, Cass sitting silently beside her. As the Boy Wonder drew closer, he was able to make out the archer's words.

"-if you don't have any plans for the weekend, I could always show you how to use a bow and arrow..."

Robin was about to tell his friend off for asking his girlfriend on a date, but a certain young child who was still clutching a butter knife beat him to it.

"Harper, cease all attempts to woo my brother's beloved."

Dick was rather amused to see Speedy suddenly jump a good foot away from the alien princess upon the words. Walking over to the group, he took a spot next to Jason. Turning towards Damian, he spoke to the child as the movie continued playing.

"Somehow you managed to pick up your mother's language despite not seeing her in nearly two years now... Not sure how that happened..."

The child scoffed at him before turning back to the movie. Looking over at Jason, who was staring blankly at the screen, he whispered to the young teen.

"I called Bats, Jay. He'll be here in about an hour."

"Thank you..."

Though Dick was still worried for the children, he decided that waiting for Bruce would be the best solution.

Sitting back, Dick allowed himself to start watching the movie, only being distracted by Damian's occasional comments about how the main character, who happened to be a tabby cat, was far superior to the canine back-up characters.

On the other side of town, in a dark warehouse, Slade glared into space hatefully. The events of the past few days kept running through his mind, more specifically the events of that very night. His glare hardened with every memory of what had occurred. Eventually, he snapped and crashed his fist into a nearby table, the wood cracking and splintering underneath his strength. Growling at the broken table, he turned away from his damage.

"Those pathetic little brats won't get away with making a fool of me..." Slade started mumbling to himself, possible revenges already forming in his mind. "When the time is right, they will know what true pain is..."

"You will do no such thing," a voice growled out behind him, causing the mercenary to pause momentarily. Suddenly recognizing the voice, Slade regained his composure, turning towards the sound swiftly.

"Batman. I had thought you were busy."

The Dark Knight stepped out of the shadows, slowly walking towards Slade.

"Robin called me about what happened."

"Ahh, so he informed you on how he failed to protect your pathetic children."

Unadulterated fury flashed in the hero's masked eyes.

"You will not even mention them, much less insult them."

Slade chuckled as he answered, hiding that he was stealthily pulling out a staff.

"It seems I hit a nerve."

The staff was whipped out, crashing towards Batman, who was now only standing a few feet away. The weapon was deflected, though, with the hero raising a single arm, knocking it out of reach.

"I'm not here to fight you, Wilson," the caped crusader snarled out.

"Why are you here, then?" Slade asked, having recollected himself after the surprise of having his staff merely knocked from his hands.

"To warn you to stay away from my children."

Slade did expect something around those lines from the Bat. He did not expect to be knocked to the ground, the dark hero towering over him.

"You are to never go near them again," he started, his voice full of anger and hatred. "From what Dick told me, you have scarred them all both physically and mentally. If you try anything like this again, I WILL make you pay."

Slade tried to stop the boot suddenly moving towards his head, but injuries gained in the fight with the Titans slowed him greatly, and he was soon unconscious.

As the credits for the movie started to roll, Robin looked around worriedly. Bruce had said he would be there soon, yet more time then an hour had passed and the man was still absent.

This worry was suddenly suspended when Jason slowly got up and spoke, his voice hoarse.

"I-I think I'm going to go to bed now. I'll try not o get kidnapped this time..."

Though Dick was about to suggest the boy wait just a little longer, Jason had already left the room. Feeling a pull on his cape, the teen looked down to see Tim staring at him with wide eyes.

"We don't have to go bed yet, right?" the child asked near desperately.

"I actually think it would better for you to not... Why do you ask, though?"

"I don't want to leave you..."

It was as Dick felt his heart break a little that a sound on the roof of the tower was heard. While the leader perked at the sound, knowing that Batman had arrived, Damian jumped. His knife was instantly out, a dark expression on his young face.

"Wilson has returned," the boy hissed, causing Tim and Cass to look at Dick with fear, believing the possibility.

"No, Dami, it's not Slade," Robin reassured the child, lowering the knife slowly.

"Who is it, then?"

The knife clattered to the floor when Batman stepped into the doorway of the staircase, surprising everyone in the room but Robin. Damian, Tim, and Cass stared in shock at the man before Tim suddenly dashed towards him.

"Daddy!" Tim clung to Bruce's left leg as he reached to man, tears starting to flow down his face.

Cass hesitantly walked over to Batman, clutching the corner of his cape and staring up at him upon joining Tim by his side.

Damian first trotted slowly over to the man, before suddenly breaking into a run, and nearly jumping into his arms. As Bruce held his son, shocked at this behavior, the child quietly spoke into his chest, where his face was currently buried.

"I-I was scared, Father."

Bruce turned towards his oldest child.

"Where is Jason?"

"In his room."

Batman gently placed Damian down, and pried Tim and Cass away from him, promising to be back in a minute. After getting directions to where Jason was residing, the man walked swiftly through the halls until he reached the doorway to his second son's room.

Knocking lightly on the door, he soon heard Jason yell back.

"I don't want to talk right now, Dick!"

Sighing at the young teen's attitude, Bruce answered.

"This isn't Dick, son."

There was silence on the other side for a moment, then sudden movement. The door slid open seconds later, revealing Jason, who had obviously been crying.

"B-Bruce?" the boy managed to choke out before grabbing the man's waist, weeping into his chest.

"I-I had to keep them safe, Bruce! He was going to hurt them!" he managed to choke out between sobs.

"I understand, Jay," the man said gently.

"N-no... you don't understand... I-"

"What don't I understand, Jason?"

"I-I didn't want him to hurt anyone ever again... If Dick's team hadn't shown up..."

As the bawling continued, Bruce realized what the boy meant. He gently placed a hand on his son's raven hair, thanking fate that the child had done something unforgivable.

Bruce spent the night, but was up again early the next morning. The children were all packed, ready to leave with their father, who had decided to let the rest of the League deal with what was left of the original problem in order to be there for his kids. Each Titans said goodbye to the children, worry shining in their eyes as they watched them get back on the plane.

The black air transportation soon lifted off and was in the distance, leaving the teens behind to remember the events of the past few days. After a few minutes of silence, Robin suddenly spoke.

"Well, that didn't go quite as well as planned..."

Sighing, the teen entered the tower, his teammates and friends following him solemnly.

**... It is over.**

**Wow. Never thought I would finish this.  
**

**It will be continued in a one-shot collection, which should be published shortly. I'd give it a few days. Not sure what it will be called yet, but be on the lookout.  
**

**Thank you, my amazing readers, for going on this journey with me! Hope to see you all soon!  
**


End file.
